Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing since 1 March 2020.

From 1 March to 20 November 2020, the Department spent £13.3 million on paid-for communications and campaigns activity, including spend on creative, production, agency fees and paid-for media. Of this, a total of £8.42 million was spent specifically on advertising media buying. It is not possible to break down spend separately by i) communications or iii) marketing as these definitions include several areas of overlapping activity.

Of the £13.3 million spent between 1 March and 20 November 2020, an estimated £526,924 was spent on consultancy services to help plan and deliver communication, advertising, marketing campaigns and to inform media buying. It is not possible to provide separate costs for each category requested as these services inform a range of activity delivered as part of broader campaign strategies.

This activity includes vital work to recruit 30,000 teachers a year and drive the uptake of apprenticeships and the new T level qualification. All our paid-for campaigns are agreed with and regularly assessed by the Cabinet Office to ensure effectiveness.

The Department’s work covers a number of manifesto commitments and is central to my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s levelling up agenda, in addition to the Government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak including the continuity of education as a national priority. With almost a million staff working in state funded schools in England, 66,000 staff in the further education sector, and 4.2 million households across the country with primary school aged children, the Department must explain policy to our key audiences, influence attitudes and change behaviour through targeted external communications, advertising and marketing campaigns to achieve publicly stated policy objectives.