§ 64. Commander BELLAIRSasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the weight of a 236 copy of last year's Navy Estimates was 2 1bs. ½ oz. and the price 4s. 6d. nett, and the weight of this year's Navy Estimates is 1 1b. 7 oz. and the price 15s. nett; whether he is aware that there is a similar extraordinary increase in the cost of all Government publications; and, in view of the reduction in the cost of paper and printing, whether he will explain the policy causing these charges?
Mr. YOUNGAs the answer is a long one, I will, with the hon. and gallant Member's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ The following is the answer:
§ The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. With regard to the second part of the question, it is necessary to differentiate between the two broad classes of Government publications, namely, Parliamentary publications and Stationery Office publications. Stationery Office publications have always been priced so as to cover, as far as possible, costs of printing, paper, binding, etc. Parliamentary publications, on the other hand, were up till the end of the first Session of last year priced according to a scale which made no provision for the cost of setting up the type, it having been the practice for nearly 90 years to recover in the sale price only the cost of paper and press-work,i.e., the additional cost of making the publication available to the general public. In the autumn of last year, owing to the continued high cost of production and the increasing necessity for economy, the whole field of the pricing and distribution of Government publications was again reviewed, and it was decided that the process of transferring Parliamentary publications, wherever possible, to the Stationery Office publications category 237 (in order to avoid the necessity for free distribution to Members of Parliament) should be continued, and that, at the same time, the scale of charges for Parliamentary publications should be revised to include cost of composition and also increased costs of paper and press-work. In framing the new scale of charges, due consideration was given to the fact that printing costs had already begun to fall, but even so the new prices worked out on the average at about three times the old prices. The position will be reviewed when costs have fallen sufficiently to justify a reduction in the prices of this class of publications. The question of issuing Command Papers as Stationery Office publications was dealt with very fully by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House in a reply given to the hon. and gallant Member on the 13th December, 1920.