Celebrities paid £90,000 of taxpayers' money to front health campaigns

By Suzannah Ramsdale  on Monday 12 January 2009

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A handful of celebrities have been paid a whopping £90,000 by the NHS to front a series of public health campaigns over the last 12 months.

Page Three girl Melinda Messenger and former Atomic Kitten Jenny Frost were among the seven famous faces that were paid the vast sums of money to appear in ads for breastfeeding, healthy eating and quitting smoking.

The other well-known personalities include The Bill actor Gary Lucy, model Donna Air, Actresses Gemma Bissix and Sian Reeves and TV presenter Professor Tanya Byron.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that £89,384 out of the taxpayers' purse were spent on five separate campaigns, meaning that each celebrity earned themselves roughly £13,000 each – although the Department of Health have refused to release the details of amounts paid to the individual celebrities.  

Critics have pointed out that other stars such as Sir Michael Parkinson and comedian Harry Hill have appeared in Government campaigns without payment.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said he has written to Health Secretary Alan Johnson demanding that the full details of the fees paid to individual celebrities be released.

'It is highly questionable paying celebrities who may well gain enormous benefit themselves out of the positive associations with public-health messages,’ he told the Mail on Sunday.

'They do often reach parts that politicians can’t but some very well-known individuals have been happy to do the publicity for free.’

However, Ben Bradshaw, a health minister, argued that it was well worth spending the money on recognisable people.

'The small amount spent on well-known figures to help strengthen the impact and reach of our public health campaigns will save the country considerably more in the long run,' he said.

'A minuscule fraction of our public health campaigns budget is spent on fees for well-known figures.'

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Monday 12 January 2009

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