Guidance to Departments on Sponsorship of Government Activities
Sponsorship and its role in support of government activities
Sponsorship is a major national industry with an annual turnover in the region of £640 million (Mintel Report 1998).
Companies get involved in sponsorship for a variety of reasons, but essentially for sound business principles. As with any business relationship, sponsorship requires that the sponsoring company receives a benefit that is relevant to its own business and communication aims. ´Sponsorship´ can therefore be defined as:
"The payment of a fee or payment in kind by a company in return for the rights to a public association with an activity, item, person or property for mutual commercial benefit."
The aim of these guidelines is to offer advice on best practice for those in government departments involved in seeking sponsorship for their information campaigns and other activities. These guidelines will help ensure that all government departments take a consistent approach. They also take into account the recommendations of the Committee on Standards in Public Life in its Sixth Report relating to sponsorship of government activities and projects.
Government deals with highly sensitive and emotive issues. The level of sponsor involvement needs, therefore, to be treated with caution. The key role sponsors can play in the public sector is to assist in ´extending´ the message. They should not receive ownership rights and their support must always be seen as secondary to the aims of the Government. Sponsors should operate within clearly defined parameters, and observe issues of propriety at all time.
The outline parameters for sponsor involvement in the public sector are:
- Companies´ support should be seen as adding significant benefit to an existing government message or campaign.
- There should be no overt commercial advantage to the sponsor in terms of the direct sale of products or brands as a result of their association with the government.
- The project should not be entirely dependent on sponsorship support for its funding.
Sponsorship Principles
1. Sponsorship support should only be considered where it would be likely to produce significant net benefit for the department at no detriment to the public interest.
2. Sponsorship support should add to, not replace, core funding.
3. Sponsorship should be sought in an open and even-handed manner from businesses competing in a particular field. A chosen sponsor´s competitors should not be given grounds to complain that they were not given a fair chance.
4. Sponsorship should be of activities or events, not of individual Ministers or civil servants, lest those individuals appear to be placed under an obligation to the sponsor. There must be no suggestion that sponsors are being given privileged access to Ministers in return for cash/benefits in kind.
5. In general, acceptance of sponsorship should be tested against the general principle that it does not, and does not appear to, place a Minister or department under an obligation to any sponsor that goes beyond any agreements relating to the activity or event. Particular care needs to be taken when considering large amounts of individual sponsorship or repeat sponsorship.
6. The department must act with, and must demonstrate impartiality, honesty and integrity when entering into a sponsorship agreement.
7. Ministers and departments must put procedures in place to ensure that sponsors do not receive returns that are greater than is proper and proportionate and that any sponsorship agreement is able to withstand public scrutiny. The department will set out what benefit is reasonable for the sponsors to expect.
8. Sponsorship should not dilute the department´s campaign or message.
9. The department must not, and must not appear to, endorse the sponsoring company or its products.
10. Sponsors must not use a government department´s communications campaign or event as a direct sales channel for their products or services.
11. Sponsors should not have any input into, or expect to influence the messages of government communication towards their business area.
12. Departments should examine rigorously whether:
- Particular activities should be excluded from sponsorship; and
- Particular types of company should be considered unsuitable as sponsors on the grounds of potential conflicts of interest or inappropriateness.
The department should examine sponsors for their financial viability, appropriate business practices, policies and customer and media profiles.
13. The department should determine whether the sponsor could bring adverse publicity to the campaign or the department.
14. Departments should not seek or accept sponsorship from firms that are involved in significant commercial negotiations with the department (whether or not these negotiations are linked to the event or activity needing sponsorship), or from firms whose business may be affected by the department´s own role in making or enforcing legislation.
15. Offers of free travel as part of a sponsorship package for a one-off event are acceptable, provided that suitable alternative carriers have also been offered the chance to sponsor the event. Offers of free travel not connected with the event should not normally be accepted. Any association with a sponsoring company must not compromise the department´s responsibilities to the public.
16. Each department that seeks sponsorship should select one of its officials to be responsible for making sure that the guidance on sponsorship is known and is in use throughout the department.
17. Sponsorship of individual amounts of more than £5,000 must be disclosed in departmental Annual Reports. Guidance on handling the recording of "in-kind"
sponsorship is set out below. Individual amounts of less than £5,000 need not be disclosed.
18. "In-kind"
sponsorship is the provision of goods or services to support or enhance a campaign or other activity. To measure the value of "in-kind"
sponsorship, departments should consider the opportunity cost, that is, how much it would have cost the department if it had paid for the support provided.
19. All sponsorship agreements should be in writing.
Contact points on Sponsorship:
General Propriety — Propriety and Ethics, Cabinet Office +44 (0)20 7276 2472
Detailed guidance on securing sponsorship — COI Communications, Sponsorshipand PR Unit:+44 (0)20 7261 8388
