60. Lieut.-Colonel Sir ARNOLD WILSONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the minutes of evidence presented to the Parmoor Committee on Industrial Assurance in 1920 were laid before Parliament and published at a cost of 3s. for 278 pages, whereas the evidence laid before the Departmental Committee which reported last year was not laid before Parliament and costs £2 19s. 6d. for 1,249 pages of the same size; and whether he can give reasons for the differential treatment of these cases?
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAPrior to 1921, the cost of setting up the type was taken into account in fixing the price of non-Parliamentary papers, but not of Parliamentary papers. In that year, in the interests of economy, it was decided that for the future Parliamentary and non-Parliamentary papers should be treated alike in this respect and that various papers, including minutes of evidence of 891 commissions and committees, hitherto published as Parliamentary papers, should be issued as non-Parliamentary papers.
§ Sir A. WILSONCan my hon. Friend state what authority decides whether the evidence submitted to a Departmental Committee is presented to Parliament in an accessible form or is published by the Stationery Office in a relatively inaccessible form?
§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAI would like notice of that question.