Costs of FOI and PR

The request was successful.

Heather Brooke

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I seek the following information about the Department's staffing and funding for publicity and communications (including any contracted-out services of this description). I would like this information broken down annually for the past three years up to the time this request is answered. The years may be financial or calendar, whichever is convenient, but please keep them consistent.

Specifically, I need:

1. The number of staff (full-time equivalent) working in marketing, external communications and press offices.

2. The number of dedicated Freedom of Information officers
(full-time equivalent).

3. Total staffing cost of marketing, external communications and press officers.

4. Total staffing cost of dedicated Freedom of Information staff.

5. Total spending on marketing, external communications and press offices.

6. Total spending on Freedom of Information.

7. If the department produces a newsletter then the name of this publication and all associated costs.

Some parts of this request may be easier to answer than others, and should this prove to be the case I would ask that you release available data as soon as possible rather than hold up the entire request.

I would prefer to receive this information electronically. If the decision is made to withhold some of this data using exemptions in Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

If you need any clarification then please contact me at the number above or via email. Under your section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance I would expect you to contact me if you find this request unmanageable in any way.

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Regards, Heather Brooke

Department of Health and Social Care

Thank you for your email.

Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS Direct on
0845 4647 or visit [1]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For the latest on swine flu, please visit [2]the National Pandemic Flu
Service (NPFS) or call 0800 1 513 100.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[3]Directgov, the UK Government's Official information website, or the
Department of Health website's [4]Frequently Asked Questions.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhs.uk/
2. http://www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu/
3. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
4. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FAQ/index.htm

Department of Health and Social Care

Dear Ms Brooke,

I am writing to apologise for the fact that you have not yet received a
response to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request. We are working
hard to get a full response to you, and will be in contact again as soon
as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Aimee Gasston
FOI Officer
Department of Health

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Department of Health and Social Care

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Dear Sir or Madam,
Thank you for responding to my request. Could I just ask you to confirm in writing the accuracy of the figures provided. Specifically, the total costs for advertising and publicity.

You state:
Total spending on Publicity and Advertising 2006-07 to 2008-09

Financial Year
Actual Spend £ million)

2008-09 = 62.6

2007-08 = 50.3

2006-07 = 40.7

However, I note that just one campaign alone cost £74million according to press reports. See:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/a...

Thank you for your time on this matter.
Regards,
Heather Brooke

Department of Health and Social Care

Thank you for your email.

Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS Direct on
0845 4647 or visit [1]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For the latest on swine flu, please visit [2]the National Pandemic Flu
Service (NPFS) or call 0800 1 513 100.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[3]Directgov, the UK Government's Official information website, or the
Department of Health website's [4]Frequently Asked Questions.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhs.uk/
2. http://www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu/
3. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
4. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FAQ/index.htm

Department of Health and Social Care

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Francis Irving left an annotation ()

Computer Weekly blog post about this request http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony...

Dear Ms Gasston,

Regarding my request (Ref: DE00000443329) you state that the marketing for the stop-smoking campaign 'would not fall under Department of Health marketing costs'.
Why not?

In my request I asked for: "Total spending on marketing, external communications and press offices." I cannot see any reason why you would be excluding the stop-smoking campaign. It leads me to the logical assumption that there must be many other marketing campaigns, similar to the stop-smoking, which have been excluded in a similar way. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If I am not wrong, and such spending has been excluded based on a misinterpretation of my request, then I am afraid I will have to ask for an Internal Review to ensure that the figures given do provide the full answer to my question.

Regards,
Heather Brooke

Department of Health and Social Care

Thank you for your email.

Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS Direct on
0845 4647 or visit [1]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For the latest on swine flu, please visit [2]the National Pandemic Flu
Service (NPFS) or call 0800 1 513 100.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[3]Directgov, the UK Government's Official information website, or the
Department of Health website's [4]Frequently Asked Questions.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhs.uk/
2. http://www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu/
3. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
4. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FAQ/index.htm

Department of Health and Social Care

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Email Content stored in attached file 'Long_Email_Body_16_10_2009.html'.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Heather Brooke left an annotation ()

I have marked that I've received 'all' the information but I am highly dubious about the way the Dept of Health is doing its accounting on this matter. I queried how it is that a £74million stop smoking campaign was left off the list. Their response:

"The £74million figure referred to in the article you mention relates to NHS stop smoking services. These services are run at hospitals, prisons, pharmacies, military bases, dental practices and other facilities and the £74million figure reflects total spending on all stop smoking services, such as nicotine replacement therapy, telephone support and drop-in clinics. While it is possible that these figures may include local NHS spending on communications relating to stop smoking services, they largely reflect the provision of health services, not communications campaigns as you have inferred."

I can only assume there must be many other out-sourced 'campaigns' which include hefty marketing costs that are conveniently placed off the DoH accounting books.

In addition, by making this request I discovered that the DoH is only half the story. The DoH and NHS are classed by the govt as separate bodies: "the Department allocates funding to the NHS, but decisions on spending are then made locally. Revenue allocations are made to Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) on the basis of the relative needs of their populations."

The DoH then tells me helpfully that if I would like to obtain information about local healthcare spending, I would need to contact the many hundred PCTs that exist.

All a cunning way of keeping secret from the public the full costs spent on PR and marketing on various so-called public health campaigns.

D. Speers left an annotation ()

You may be interested in looking at the responses to the Parliamenary Health Select Committee Report into Patient Safety, published recently on Hansard,there are serious failures in health regulation.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...

Heather Brooke left an annotation ()

Thanks for previous note from Speers.
So while the dept of health tells the public it has just 54 comms staff, it tells the Lords Select Committee it has 122. Interesting.

Department of Health
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...

"DoH has 122 staff engaged in communications work, of whom 30 are press officers. The total budget for the communications division of DoH in 2007/08 was £52.2 million. This was made up of an administrative budget of £7.1 million covering the cost of the 122 staff and their day-to-day operations, and £45.1 million of programme costs.

In 2008/09 the total budget allocation rose to £107 million. The administrative budget rose by 7 per cent to £7.6 million, while the programme costs more than doubled to £99.6 million. The main reasons for the large increase in the programme costs were the launch of a major campaign on obesity and a significant increase in expenditure on tobacco control."

Alix Cull left an annotation ()

How much is spent on severe mental illness, and on the carers of this group of people? How does the cost of keeping such patients incare(hospital or other) with them being kept at home?

D. Speers left an annotation ()

Thanks Alix I have asked the question and some interesting links below:
"I am concerned that after much research and after reading the responses to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee report on Patient Safety, that it appears funding for mental health care is taking a disproportionate cut in public funding. Suicide Indicators are being withdrawn from 2010 and England will therefore be left without a National Suicide Prevention Policy. Suicide clusters are ,according to the Dept of Health, possible indicators of 'significant system failure' and if the indicators are withdrawn then how will DH guidance HSG(94)27 be accessed? http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/grou...

Can I please have updated information on current spending and proposed spending.
1) How much is spent on severe mental illness?
2) How much is spent on the carers of this group of people? 3) How does the cost of keeping such patients incare(hospital or other) compare with them being kept at home?

Interesting take on complaints:
http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-prac...

and interesting comments on commissioning from the NHS CEO:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/grou...

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

Eleanor Laing MP asked how many FOI officers the Department of Health has, and how much the department spends responding to FOI requests via a written question in parliament:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=...

The response she got was less accurate, and less complete, than the response obtained from this correspondence thread via WhatDoTheyKnow.

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Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk