Taxpayers' body slams PR spend PDF Print E-mail
PR Industry

February 8, 2008, News Letter

THE number of Northern Ireland Office Press officers has remained unchanged since devolution – despite many of the department's responsibilities now being devolved.
 
The NIO also revealed that it had paid almost £30,000 in bonuses to Press and communication officers during the last two years – the largest single bonus each year was £9,000 for "exceptional performance and additional workload".

A Parliamentary answer given to Liberal Democrat MP Jeremy Browne, a former public relations consultant, shows that in 2006-2007 the department – which has offices in Whitehall and Belfast – employed 11 Press officers.

Secretary of State Shaun Woodward's answer shows that the number of Press officers in his department has fallen from 15 in 2002.

Last week the NIO said that it currently has 11 Press officers after Mr Woodward told the Commons that the department had spent more than £700,000 on external PR companies in the last six years.

The Taxpayers' Alliance called on the NIO to decide whether it wanted to have a full-time Press office or an external public relations consultant.

"There can be no excuse for this expensive duplication. Either PR should be outsourced to external companies or there should be an NIO Press office — there is no need to have both," the group's campaign director Mark Wallace said.

A spokeswoman for the NIO defended the PR spending and said some of it had been spent on public safety TV advertising campaigns.

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