Written question asked by Marquess of Lothian (Conservative) on Tuesday, 14 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 October 2008. It was answered by Lord Beamish (Labour) on Thursday, 23 October 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Departmental Public Relations

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost was of (a) entertainment, (b) advertising and promotion and (c) public relations consultancy to his Department in 2007-08.

Answer: Expenditure in 2007-08 by the MOD, including the armed forces on the items listed was:"(a) Hospitality and entertainment—£4.2 million. We report this expenditure in our Annual Report and Accounts each year.""(b) Advertising and public relations—£46.3 million. This represents the cost of public relations services (including sales marketing and advertising), Service and civilian recruitment expenses and expenditure on schools and community relations initiatives.""(c) The level of expenditure on public relations consultancy is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. A summary of MOD's 2007-08 expenditure on external assistance (which includes public relations consultancy) has been placed in the Library of the House."The figures quoted do not include expenditure for the MOD Trading Funds which lie outside the Department's accounting boundary.All expenditure is subject to audit and the principles set out in Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

Secondary information