The government spent just short of €800,000 in the production of television advertising, figures tabled in Parliament show.

The production costs incurred by the different ministries between 2013 and last month were supplied in reply to a series of parliamentary questions by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi.

The Justice and Culture Ministry forked out the largest sum, spending over €281,000 of the total amount exceeding €792,900.

The largest expense in this case consisted in the production of TV adverts by the Valletta 2018 Foundation, which this year has already spent €37,600.

The foundation spent €32,898 last year and television spots by the Local Enforcement System Agency, which also falls under the remit of the Justice and Culture Ministry, cost a further €39,519.

This year V18 Foundation has already spent €37,600

The figures supplied by Culture Minister Owen Bonnici showed that this was the first time since 2013 that the agency had spent money on advertising.

The Transport and Infrastructure Ministry spent the second-highest amount on TV adverts: €145,283. The bulk was spent by the Planning Authority, whose production costs exceeded €45,000 in the period under review.

The Gozo Ministry ran up a bill of just under €127,000, most of the expense consisting in adverts by its customer services directorate, which spent €68,833.

The Office of the Prime Minister spent €97,688 on promotion, the bulk in TV spots by the Malta Information Technology Agency.

The home affairs, finance, family and social solidarity, health, tourism, equality and education ministries were among the thriftier, some of them spending less than €25,000 on TV ads production.

In a series of similar parliamentary questions by Dr Azzopardi earlier this month, it emerged that the government had spent over €500,000 on advertisements on billboards in five years.