Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the cost of government-placed advertising, including information and advice advertisements, in each of the last five years, broken down by issue or purpose of advertisement.

My Department is responsible for cross-Government communication as set out in the Annual Government Communication Plan. As part of our long-term economic plan we have substantially reformed Government communications since the 2010 General Election, abolishing the Central Office of Information and ensuring that Government communications activity is better coordinated and more effective.

Thanks to these reforms we have halved the cost to taxpayers of government communications since the 2010 General Election.

The NAO has confirmed that Government made savings of £378 million in each of the last two financial years on proactive paid-for communications, compared to a 2009-10 baseline. This is based on proactive (paid-for) communications spend of £589m in 09/10, £216m in 12/13 and £210m in 13/14.

My department regularly publishes data on: www.data.gov.uk showing how public money has been spent and how government is performing against its objectives and goals. Information on individual Departments advertising budgets and spend is not held centrally.