PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for Work and Pensions: Social Media (11 March 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials in (a) her private office and (b) the wider Department have been allocated to the production and promotion of online content for use on social media in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.

Asked by:
Darren Jones (Labour)

The DWP is the largest department in Whitehall, making a difference to the lives of millions of people right across the country, and as such it is vital that communications are far-reaching, clear and effective. DWP manages social media through these key areas;

• At a national level in the Strategic Communications Directorate (SCD) to communicate key policy areas to the public, campaign messaging and ministerial priorities.

• At a local level in the Customer Experience Directorate (CED) through operational staff using jobcentre accounts that are a valuable resource to help people find work and access the support they need.

• In the Digital Group (DG) to communicate how it uses technology and innovation to build products and services that change the lives of people across the UK.

The following table shows the amount of staff who have a role in the production of social media content.

Year	Number of staff
2018/19	20
2019/20	27
2020/21	25

Operational staff who manage local jobcentre accounts are not included in these figures as social media forms a small part of their daily role. There are no officials in Ministers’ private offices that create or manage content for social media.

Answered by:
Guy Opperman (Conservative)
19 March 2021