Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's advertising and communications expenditure was in each month since September 2014; and what that expenditure is forecast to be in March 2015.

The Department for Education has very significantly reduced the cost of its communications since 2010. The Department coordinates communications activities to ensure they are focused and effective, using low-cost campaigns wherever possible.

The total spend on agency creative development and evaluation between Sept 2014 and March 2015 will be £385,000. The total spend for media advertising is £1,649,949.

Due to the delivery of commissions from PR agencies, we are unable to provide a monthly breakdown of costs for the total communications budget. We can however provide monthly breakdowns for spend for media advertising campaigns. This is set out the table below.

* Due to the nature of receipting by external contractors, we have provided information for expenditure per month according to the marketing materials’ first appearance.

** The first tranche of the childcare campaign commenced w/c 25 August and ran throughout September