Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the OSCAR II database holds information on departmental spending on communications, marketing and advertising.

Financial information explicitly recording Communications and Advertising expenditure is not held centrally within OSCAR. OSCAR records Marketing expenditure against the Chart of Accounts code "EXP - PURCHASE OF GOODS/SERVICES - MARKETING & MEDIA".

There are no separate expenditure codes specifically attributed to Communications or Advertising activity; however, departments may include these items of spend within this aggregate account on OSCAR.

Individual departments may hold more detailed information on expenditure recorded against this code, or the specific items of expenditure being enquired about, within their own finance systems.

The most recent OSCAR data are published as part of the OSCAR annual release: November 2025 - GOV.UK, which can be accessed online.