Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money his Department has spent on (a) Facebook and (b) Instagram advertising in each of the past five years.

Digital advertising is a cost-effective way for the government to recruit nurses, promote blood donations, find out about pensions and all the other important information the public needs to be aware of.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has spent £14,955.67 on Facebook and £63,865.00 on Instagram promoted activity since 2014.

The figures set out in the table below do not include any recruitment promotion as there is no record held centrally. If we were to provide this data, it would involve working with 24 recruitment leads across Defra, therefore could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, the table does include the following promotions:

• Summer of Great British Food (2016)

• Great British Food (2017)

• 25 Year Environment Plan & Future Farming consultation (2018)

The majority of the communications advertising spend was on promoting British food through the Department’s Food is GREAT Instagram channel.