§ 35. Mr. Liptonasked the Paymaster-General if he will publish in HANSARD the reply he sent to the hon. Member for Bournemouth, West (Sir J. Eden) about the regular publications sponsored by the Government Information Service.
§ The Paymaster-General (Mr. George Wigg)I wrote to the hon. Member for Bournemouth, West on 20th May and I am circulating the letter in the OFFICIAL REPORT. I am also sending the hon. Member a copy of the Stationery Office catalogue, "Government Publications", 1175 which is issued monthly and annually and which contains particulars of those publications published by the Stationery Office.
I wrote to all Government Departments on 21st May for details of regular publications for which they are Departmentally responsible and which do not appear in any published lists. The replies show that there is a vast number of such publications. Because the information is so voluminous, I am arranging for a copy of the list to be placed in the Library.
§ Mr. LiptonI thank my right hon. Friend for that Answer, which shows that he was not attempting to evade the issue, as was suggested last week. Will he give an indication of how much it has cost to provide or collect the information, which could have been easily obtained more cheaply through other channels?
§ Mr. WiggI am much obliged to my hon. Friend for giving notice to my office this morning that he intended to ask that supplementary question. I have tried to get information on the point. It is difficult to make precise calculations, but it may be taken from a sample that the cost amounted to several hundreds of pounds.
§ Mr. Biggs-DavisonIn view of this heavy burden, can the right hon. Gentleman assure us that he has enough staff in his Department for the discharge of his multifarious responsibilities?
§ Following is the letter:
§ 20th May, 1965.
§ In answering your Question in the House on 17th May about regular publications sponsored by the Government's information services I said that I was making inquiries and would let you have the results.
§ As I made clear in my supplementary answers, the question of publications sponsored by the overseas information services is for the Foreign Office. For this information, therefore, you should address your question to that Department.
§ In so far as the home information services are concerned, details of the regular publications available on payment are listed in the Stationery Office catalogue "Government Publications". This is issued monthly and annually and I am enclosing a copy of the latest issues.
§ In addition there are certain publications produced by the Central Office of Information for distribution at home. These are as follows:—
§ Youth Service (Department of Education and Science).
§ Officer (Ministry of Defence).
§ Broadsheets on Britain (Department of Economic Affairs).
§ D.E.A. Progress Report (Department of Economic Affairs).
§ Talking Points on Britain's Economy (Board of Trade).
§ The first of these is available on subscription; the second is available free to schools, careers masters, etc., and the remainder are issued free to a special mailing list.
§ I am making further inquiries of all Departments to obtain information about any regular publications for which they are solely responsible and will write to you again when they are completed.
§ George Wigg.
§ Sir John Eden, Bt., M.P.,
§ House of Commons,
§ London, S.W.1.