Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Government public awareness campaign entitled Millions got a pay rise, what is the total budget for the communications campaign, and over what period; what communications channels have been used; what external agencies have been contracted; and what was the process by which the communications campaign was signed off under communications spending controls.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage campaign ran from 1 April to 31 May 2025 with a total budget of £650,000. The objective was to ensure workers understood their new pay entitlement to prevent underpayment. The agencies Pablo Unlimited, Wavemaker and OMD were used to support the delivery of this campaign. This campaign was approved under Cabinet Office’s advertising, marketing and communications spending controls. Communication channels used were:
The Department for Business and Trade has not run any paid campaign on the national minimum wage and national living wage in 2026.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will provide (a) staff costs, (b) non-staff costs, (c) total costs and (d) Full-Time Equivalent for the Competition and Markets Authority's Sustainability Taskforce for the financial years (i) 2023-2024, (ii) 2024-2025 and (iii) 2025-2026.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The information requested is as follows:
FY | Staff Costs | Non-Staff Costs | Total Cost | Full-Time Equivalent |
2023-24 | £418,715.01 | £3,335.36 | £422,050.37 | 5.4 |
2024-25 | £342,306.01 | £677.18 | £342,983.19 | 3.9 |
The CMA is not able to provide figures for 2025/26 before its accounts for the financial year are finalised and published in July.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Answer of 21 April 2026 to Question 124883 on the Supply Chain Centre, how much has been allocated to the Centre in (a) 2025-2026, (b) 2026-2027 and (c) 2027-2028 financial years; and how many full-time equivalent staff it (i) currently has and (ii) will have at its formal launch.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We expect to launch the Supply Chain Centre formally later this year. At present, the team has a headcount of 33, with an associated budget of £2,778,886. Budgets for future years will be set at a later date.