§ 63. Major NALLasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the large 2015 stocks of stationery which it is intended to store at Hollinwood, near Manchester, have already been printed; why it is necessary to create this stock; how many hundreds of tons of paper will be required to justify the use of these premises for so small a service; and when does he intend to reduce the Stationery Department to its pre-War dimensions?
§ Mr. BALDWINNo new stocks of paper or printed forms have been created by the transfer of the Northern Area branch of the Stationery Office from Manchester to Hollinwood. The Stationery Office in Manchester has been in existence since 1916, when the work of supplying paper, stationery, office requisites, office machinery, and of distributing printed forms and books to Government offices (now some 20,000) in the northern area of England and in Wales, was transferred from London to Manchester. The stocks of paper, forms, books and office supplies held at Hollinwood at the present moment are estimated at 5,000 tons, comprising a variety of over 41,000 articles. The number of requisitions received is about 300,000 a year. In comparison with similar work required for the northern area when formerly executed in London, the following main grounds of economy were anticipated and have been realized:
As regards the last part of the question, I must refer the hon. and gallant Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for the Epsom Division on the 1st instant.
- (1) Cheaper transit from paper-mill to the warehouse.
- (2) Cheaper distribution to the centres of population in the northern area.
- (3) Cheaper printing through competition of northern and southern printers due to the elimination of double handling of paper.