By . Amanda Williams For Mailonline . The BBC has spent almost £35,000 on external PR agencies - even though it employs a 140-strong in-house communications team. The corporation admitted that it had spent £34,323 on four PR companies in response to an FOI request, and confirmed it also had 141 communications staff in post. It has come under fire from taxpayers' groups and MPs for 'wasting money on external spin doctors'. Four . agencies have been used over the past three years - Avalon Public . Relations, Premier Public Relations, Midas Public Relations and Taylor . Herring. The BBC has spent almost £35,000 on external PR agencies - even though it employs a 140 strong in-house communications team . Dia Chakravarty, Political Director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Hard-pressed families will be right to question if the BBC has got its priorities right, spending this sort of money on external spin doctors. 'Licence fee-payers expect their money to fund high-quality programming, not to be wasted on hiring external consultants. 'BBC already has a substantial PR department which should be able to deal with its communications requirements. 'What are these consultants doing that can't be done in-house?' Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said the figure was unjustifiable . Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘I take the point that it is very difficult to justify spending this amount. ‘In fact it is unjustifiable bearing in mind the legions of people they employ to do PR. ‘I am not sure why they’d ever recruit anyone externally. It begs the question what are the in house people doing?’ But he added that in the grander scheme of BBC waste, there were ‘bigger fish to fry’. The BBC said no money had been paid to external PR agencies in the last year. A spokesman said the in house-staffing figure includes support staff, Public and Corporate Affairs staff - who don't work directly on PR campaigns - and those based across all English Regions. She added: 'There was no money paid to these companies last year and these costs relate to one off events or projects several years ago. 'Every week the BBC Communications division handles several thousand enquiries at a regional, national, and international level. 'In addition there is a Corporate team that responds to a huge array of queries about the Corporation itself. 'There is also the Public Affairs team that liaises with politicians nationwide. 'The division is vital for keeping licence fee payers informed about the BBC's content and how the organisation is being run.' Midas Public Relations said the BBC may well have drawn on its expertise as a leading communications agency for publishing, culture and arts, but that it had had no work from the BBC since 2009.
Four agencies used over the past three years, it has been revealed .
The corporation admitted that it had spent £34,323 on external companies .
It revealed it also has 141 in-house communications staff in post .
BBC criticised for outside spending while employing 'legion of PR staff'
By . Amanda Williams For Mailonline . The BBC has spent almost £35,000 on external PR agencies - even though it employs a 140-strong in-house communications team. The corporation admitted that it had spent £34,323 on four PR companies in response to an FOI request, and confirmed it also had 141 communications staff in post. It has come under fire from taxpayers' groups and MPs for 'wasting money on external spin doctors'. Four . agencies have been used over the past three years - Avalon Public . Relations, Premier Public Relations, Midas Public Relations and Taylor . Herring. The BBC has spent almost £35,000 on external PR agencies - even though it employs a 140 strong in-house communications team . Dia Chakravarty, Political Director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Hard-pressed families will be right to question if the BBC has got its priorities right, spending this sort of money on external spin doctors. 'Licence fee-payers expect their money to fund high-quality programming, not to be wasted on hiring external consultants. 'BBC already has a substantial PR department which should be able to deal with its communications requirements. 'What are these consultants doing that can't be done in-house?' Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said the figure was unjustifiable . Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘I take the point that it is very difficult to justify spending this amount. ‘In fact it is unjustifiable bearing in mind the legions of people they employ to do PR. ‘I am not sure why they’d ever recruit anyone externally. It begs the question what are the in house people doing?’ But he added that in the grander scheme of BBC waste, there were ‘bigger fish to fry’. The BBC said no money had been paid to external PR agencies in the last year. A spokesman said the in house-staffing figure includes support staff, Public and Corporate Affairs staff - who don't work directly on PR campaigns - and those based across all English Regions. She added: 'There was no money paid to these companies last year and these costs relate to one off events or projects several years ago. 'Every week the BBC Communications division handles several thousand enquiries at a regional, national, and international level. 'In addition there is a Corporate team that responds to a huge array of queries about the Corporation itself. 'There is also the Public Affairs team that liaises with politicians nationwide. 'The division is vital for keeping licence fee payers informed about the BBC's content and how the organisation is being run.' Midas Public Relations said the BBC may well have drawn on its expertise as a leading communications agency for publishing, culture and arts, but that it had had no work from the BBC since 2009.
communications team. The corporation admitted that it had spent £34,323 on four PR companies in had 141 communications staff in post. It has come agencies have been used over the past three years