Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the UK Communications Agency classified the Evening Standard as a regional or national newspaper for the purposes of advertising spend in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020, (d) 2021 and (e) 2022.

The Evening Standard is classified as a regional title. However, due to the coverage and reach that the publication has with the general public and businesses, it is sometimes added to national titles if an upweight is required in the London area.

Spend data for the whole of government is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office. However, the Cabinet Office publishes expenditure for its own department, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.