To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many brand managers his Department and its predecessors have employed in each of the last five years; and at what cost.

This Department has one member of staff responsible for managing the Department's brand. This includes the publication and dissemination of the brand guidelines and advising on their application. It is estimated that 25 per cent. of this person's time is spent on branding related activities. Based on the average pay costs for a member of staff at this grade this represents a staff cost of approximately £11,241 in 2009/10.

The former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) each had one member of staff responsible for brand management. The average pay costs for this were:

Figures for staff costs for earlier years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The figure for DIUS in 2007/08 is the total staff cost on branding activity as a larger percentage of staff time was spent on branding issues in the first six months of the Department's existence.