Chief Minister Tony Brown announced the review in the House of Keys after David Cannan (Michael) questioned whether it was an appropriate expenditure of public money to engage external consultants to draft and publish media releases.

Mr Brown said every government department had been asked to look at how they could make cuts of up to 15 per cent and this may well include advertising agencies used.

He said: 'I can confirm that in the changing financial circumstance we are now moving into that all such engagements will be reassessed, as will many other areas of government expenditure, to ensure the appropriateness of their continued engagement.'

The chief minister said it was expected that such expenditure was 'properly monitored' to ensure value for money — but he did not give details of the sums involved.

However, Isle of Man Newspapers has obtained those figures via a freedom of information request submitted under the government's voluntary code.

We revealed last month that a third of a million pounds of taxpayers' cash was spent by the Manx Government last year on off-Island public relations.

Lansons Communications, appointed last October for a three-year contract to provide co-ordinated public relations for the chief secretary's office, Treasury's Isle of Man Finance and eBusiness Division and the Department of Trade and Industry, charged fees in 2008-09 of £307,666.67 for off-Island PR advice, media monitoring and liaison with UK and international media.

Consultants Weber Shandwick, brought in on a one-year contract in October 2007 to provide 'a public affairs contact programme' in the UK for the chief secretary's office, charged £88,122.66 in 2007-2008 and £65,797.66 in 2008-2009.

Alistair Audsley, Isle of Man-based marketing consultant behind the Freedom of Flourish strategy, was paid fees in 2007-2008 of £56,140.71 and £41,708.37 in 2008-2009.

Our access to government information request also asked for details of PR agencies and press officers that were employed by individual government departments, offices and statutory boards. Only two said they employed the services of PR firms.

The Department of Transport revealed it had paid Isle of Man Advertising & PR a total of £31,764 in 2006/07 and £43,869 in 2008-09.

In his reply, DoT chief executive Ian Thompson said Isle of Man Advertising had a three-year contract with the department to provide 'strategic PR campaign planning', drafting and distribution of press releases, organisation of media briefings presentations, launches and events and a 24/7 out of hours call-out service emergency PR support.

Each division had its own budget for PR and were invoiced separately for the work, he said.

The Department of Local Government and the Environment confirmed it had contracted ffinlo Costain of Costain Media to carry out a news co-ordinating service between November 2008 and May 2009 at a cost of £15,600. This sum was paid out of the department's corporate services directorate budget.

The only other to use the services of a PR firm was the Manx Electricity Authority which said while it didn't employ an agency it did make a single payment of £195 to Isle of Man Advertising for assistance on a press release plus the award of contacts worth £1,512 in 2007/08 and £2,550 in 2008/09 to the same firm for the design and printing of materials including calendars and stickers for its 'Dial B 4 U dig' campaign.

In the Keys, Mr Cannan said departments with senior executives earning more than £60,000 a year were asking outside consultancies to draft and publish many publications – and he was pleased to hear 'this nonsense is going to stop'.

Mr Brown replied that he hoped members would 'pick and choose' when they needed to use such agencies so that money was not wasted.

Peter Karran (Lib Vannin, Onchan) asked the Chief Minister whether he would review Manx Radio's funding from the government – it receives an annual subvention of nearly £1m per year – and the £600,000-£ 700,000 the government spent on advertising with Isle of Man Newspapers.

But Mr Brown warned: 'We have to be careful not to drive ourselves into recession. The balance must be right.'