Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his Department's advertising and communications expenditure was in each month since September 2014; and what that expenditure is forecast to be in March 2015.
Answered by David Lidington
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) budgets are devolved to London departments and overseas Posts.
The FCO does not have a dedicated advertising budget, and so it would not be possible to aggregate any spending without incurring disproportionate cost. Similarly, there is no central Departmental budget for communications and so to establish this figure would incur disproportionate cost. The central Communication Directorate budget outturns for the period requested are as follows:
September 2014: 119,151
October: 179,324
November: 154,348
December: 177,033
January 2015: 364,872
February: 243,531
Forecast figures are subject to constant change. However, the final outturn for March will be given in the FCO’s Departmental Report.
The FCO has reduced costs in its Communications Directorate by 62% between 2009-2010 and 2014-2015.