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Waste and Resources Action Programme

Answer

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) commissions external public relations agencies to communicate its research, advice and consumer campaigns to a wide range of target audiences, both business and consumer. The expenditure is predominantly in support of WRAP's national consumer behaviour-change campaigns: Recycle Now, Love Food Hate Waste and the programme to support home composting.WRAP ensures that public relations activity is a cost-effective use of taxpayers' funds. For example, public relations spend of £36,000 to launch The Food We Waste report in May this year delivered national and regional media coverage with an advertising value equivalent of £1.995 million, equal to the entire annual communications budget for WRAP's Food Waste campaign.Public relations material produced for the consumer campaigns provides local authorities with valuable free support to help them meet recycling and waste minimisation targets. These campaigns have been highly successful over this period: the number of 'committed recycler' households in England has increased by 3.9 million, unnecessary food waste has been reduced by more than 100,000 tonnes and almost two million compost bins have been sold through the home composting programme.It is only possible to express expenditure by financial year, and the following figures therefore relate to the two financial years between April 2007 and March 2009.During 2007-08, expenditure on external public relations agencies was £3.1 million, representing 4.3 per cent. of WRAP's budget for that year. In the current financial year (2008-09), the planned expenditure in this area is £2.9 million, representing 5 per cent. of the overall budget for the year. It should be noted that WRAP's 2008-09 budget is significantly lower than the budget for 2007-08, which is why the expenditure on PR agencies in 2008-09, although lower than the figure for 2007-08, represents a higher proportion of this year's budget.The firms employed to support WRAP over this period who are currently on the roster are 3 Monkeys, Ptarmigan, Tri-Media Harrison Cowley, Camargue, Bray Leino PR, and Fishbum Hedges. Firms no longer on the roster are Pelican PR, Lawton PR, Grayling, Proteus PR, Consolidated PR, and Kinross and Render.During this period WRAP commissioned one piece of external public affairs support. Now completed, this six-month project was to engage public policy makers and opinion formers from outside WRAP's established stakeholder groups to discuss a range of developing resource efficiency issues on which WRAP is working. Chelgate Ltd was engaged at a cost of £25,000.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

222862; 480 c745-6W;480 c739-40W

Session

2007-08

Related items

Domestic Wastes
Monday, 17 November 2008
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

WRAP

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk