Central Office of Information

Central Office of Information (COI)
Non-ministerial government department overview
Formed	1946 (1946)
Jurisdiction	United Kingdom
Headquarters	Hercules House, Hercules Road, London SE1 7DU
Minister responsible	Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office
Website
www.coi.gov.uk

The Central Office of Information (COI) is the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its Chief Executive reports to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It is a non-ministerial department, an executive agency and a trading fund, and recovers its costs from the other departments, executive agencies and publicly funded bodies which use its services.

It was established in 1946 after the wartime Ministry of Information was closed. It works with Whitehall departments and public bodies to produce information campaigns on issues that affected the lives of British citizens, from health and education to benefits, rights and welfare.

COI celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2006 with several events including a film season at the National Film Theatre and a poll to find Britain's favourite public information film on the BBC website.

From 2009, governmental spending on marketing fell considerably. This was because of the Coalition Government's policy to support only essential campaigns. As a result, the Government announced that COI will be closed by April 2012 and its remaining functions transferred to the Cabinet Office.

External links

• Central Office of Information