Subsidies to Service magazines

Mr Sykes

I am contacting you in regards to your FOI enquiry on Forces magazines. I
would like to apologise for the delay in responding to you within the
deadline.

We are currently finalising your response and will have this to you as
soon as possible.

DMC

Dear Mr Sykes,

Thank you for your email of 18 August 2010, regarding magazines' costs,
which is considered to be a request for recorded information under the
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000.

You asked:

1. Subsidies paid to the three armed forces magazines 2.Please include
global cost to the Exchequer 3.Please ensure cost of camera equipment
and pay to service photographers engaged on purely P.R. photographic
duties servicing those magazines is also included.

The three principal magazines for the Armed Forces (Navy News, Soldier
Magazine and RAF News) are funded by the Defence Budget because they are
key channels for informing our people about Defence issues and activity.

The overall net cost to Defence for these publications for the financial
year 2009/10 was £1,293,321.

The breakdown of costs is as follows:

Financial Year 2009/10 Production Costs (including Manpower) Income
Received Total Net Cost
Navy News £805,507 £654,013 £151,514
Soldier Magazine £1,416,298 £520,080 £896,218
RAF News £544,029 £298,420 £245,609
Totals £2,765,834 £1,472,513 £1,293,321

As you requested these figures include the costs of photographers and
their equipment engaged solely in serving the magazines and includes both
military and civilian personnel. It does not include costs associated
with the overall MOD photographic capability which also supports other
Defence requirements such as our websites and the provision of images to
the public and independent media.

If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about
any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in
the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are
still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review
by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 2^nd Floor, MOD Main
Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [1][email address]). Please note
that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working
days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has
come to an end.

If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your
complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section
50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information
Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review
process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the
Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website,
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk.

Best regards

Directorate of Media and Communications

References

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2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/