Central Office of Information

The Central Office of Information (COI) was the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its chief executive reported to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was a non-ministerial department, and became an executive agency and a trading fund subject to the Government Trading Funds Act 1973, recovering its costs from the other departments, executive agencies and publicly funded bodies which used its services.

Established in 1946 as the successor to the wartime Ministry of Information, the COI was designed not only to handle peacetime public information campaigns but also to continue the Ministry's legacy of coordinated government propaganda. The COI was, in part, an effort to shape cultural attitudes and public perceptions, both domestically and overseas.