Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Bernard Jenkin (Conservative) on Tuesday, 16 November 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 18 November 2010. It was answered by Peter Luff (Conservative) on Monday, 13 December 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Departmental Press: Subscriptions

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much (a) his Department and (b) the non-departmental public bodies for which he is responsible spent on press cuttings services in each of the last 12 months.
Answer

The provision of a press cuttings service is regularly reviewed to ensure the best value for money, both in terms of the number of recipients and the search terms used. These are kept to a minimum consistent with maintaining the appropriate level of awareness.The cost of press cuttings services to central London Ministry of Defence (MOD) divisions and to the three out of four MOD trading funds that pay separately for press cuttings services, is shown in the following table. Figures for October 2010 have yet to be confirmed; the information in the following table shows the most recent 12 months for which all information is available.

Cost (£)
MOD cost Defence Science and Technology Laboratory United Kingdom Hydrographic Office Meteorological Office
2009
October 11,809.04 180.80 0.00 ¹—
November 13,022.40 484.77 0.00 —
December 11,151.60 535.62 0.00 —
2010
January 13,092.54 480.87 1,318.00 —
February 10,880.13 230.52 0.00 —
March 11,904.50 249.73 1,197.00 —
April 9,833.00 155.94 1,413.00 —
May 10,351.09 324.41 1,413.00 —
June 13,309.41 202.27 1,197.00 —
July 11,318.88 57.63 0.00 —
August 11,671.26 413.58 1,591.00 —
September 12,057.51 267.84 0.00 —
¹ Press cuttings supplied under a fixed price contract. No additional monthly charges are paid. Annual total: £4,866.67
Note:
The figures given above exclude VAT and Newspaper Licensing Authority fees.

The fourth MOD trading fund the Defence Support Group spent no money on press cutting services during the past 12 months.The expenditure incurred by the two MOD non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) that use press cutting services is shown in the following table.

£
RAF Museum Army Museum
2009
October 77.00 516.30
November 92.60 512.23
December 122.60 472.28
2010
January 54.20 448.67
February 77.00 579.56
March 61.40 686.57
April 87.80 489.14
May 66.20 497.48
June 100.00 406.89
July 66.20 399.76
August 120.20 617.99
September 75.80 542.18

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
25493; 520 c455-6W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Press Ministry of Defence Subscriptions
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk