Departments: Marketing

Mrs. May
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which advertising and marketing campaigns were run by (a) her Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; which external agencies were involved; and what the cost was of each campaign.

Mr. Hoon
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not keep a central record of amounts spent on advertising and marketing campaigns. The information required to answer this question could be obtained only by requiring individual budget holders in the FCO and its agencies (FCO Services and Wilton Park) to examine all invoices for the last five years. This could be done only at disproportionate cost.