§ 7. Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the fact that outside London there is no branch of Her Majesty's Stationery Office available to the public in the eastern half of England, whether he will conduct market research into the feasibility of opening such a branch in at least one of the regional centres, namely, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Nottingham.
§ Mr. MacDermotThe likely demand for Government publications in these centres can already be closely estimated. It falls considerably short of what would be required to support the opening of a new Government Bookshop.
§ Mr. WainwrightIs the hon. and learned Gentleman aware that the low demand is likely to be due to the extraordinarily high price of Stationery Office publications? Will he consider reducing these prices if greater sales could be promoted through regional shops?
§ Mr. MacDermotI do not think that that is the reason. We already get a fairly accurate assessment of the demand for these publications.