Figures to be published by COI Communications in August will show that its ad budget was broadly in line with the 拢167 million on media and 拢21 million on non-media in the 2003-04 financial year. The total is still being finalised and may show a small increase.
Four Whitehall departments with a significant adspend revealed a drop in their budgets in the 12 months to March. The Department of Health saw its spend fall from 拢39.9 million to 拢32.7 million, the Home Office's was down from 拢12.5 million to 拢9.7 million, the Department for Education and Skills' budget fell from 拢17 million to 拢11.8 million, and the Department for Transport's dropped from 拢10.3 million to 拢8.7 million.
However, the apparent fall in spending may stem from a change in the way the figures are calculated. In the 2003-04 year, the totals included media and non-media costs, but in 2004-05 they switched to "media only" figures, which exclude production costs - normally about 15 per cent.
Officials argued it would be wrong to include all production costs in "year one" budgets, when a campaign might run for two or three years.
The figures emerged in Commons written replies in response to questions from Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs, who accused Labour of boosting the Government's spending on campaigns in the run-up to the general election.
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