HL Deb 08 June 1915 vol 19 cc20-2

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE) presented and moved the adoption of the Third Report from the Select Committee on the House of Lords Offices. The Committee reported—

"The Committee have considered the subject of the present system of publishing the House of Lords Debates referred to them by the House:

"They are of opinion that a re-trial should be given to the different method, similar in principle to that of the House of Commons, adopted at the commencement of the Session of 1909 and shortly afterwards dropped, by which the publishing of the Reports of the Debates can be considerably accelerated. They therefore recommend that as soon as arrangements for the change can be conveniently made, the Daily Parts circulated to all Peers desiring them. But each Peer taking part in a debate would receive direct from the printers two copies of the Daily Part, on which he would mark any necessary corrections, and these corrections would be subsequently made for the permanent record (the Volume). The Committee are advised that provided the times in the Table at the end of this Report are accepted, this change can be effected without involving any increased expenditure either for reporting or printing the Debates. But they think it right to draw special attention to the fact that:—

  1. "(1) Under the proposed new system the sending to Peers of proof slips, as formerly, would be quite impracticable; and
  2. "(2) To avoid the pagination and 'make up' being interfered with—an expensive matter from the printing point of view—the corrections made in the Daily Part for the Volume would have to be strictly limited to putting right inaccuracies.

"The Committee recommend further that in order that the present cost of printing may not be exceeded, the number of Daily Parts to which a member of the House is entitled free of charge should be limited to six.

"They recommend further that, as correction in future will be limited to putting right inaccuracies, the asterisk hitherto used to indicate that a speech has been revised by the Peer should be abolished.

"Lastly, the Committee desire to mention that it would considerably assist the recording of the Debates if all extracts, whether typewritten or printed, read by Peers, were as soon as possible afterwards handed to an attendant of the House for delivery to the Official Reporter."

TABLE.
Duration of Sitting. Day of Debate. Time of Publication.
Two hours or less Monday Wednesday, 5 p.m.
Tuesday Thursday, 5 p.m.
Wednesday Friday, 5 p.m.
Thursday Monday, 12 o'clock noon.
Between two and three hours. Monday Thursday, 10 a.m.
Tuesday Friday, 10 a.m.
Wednesday Saturday, 10 a.m.
Thursday Monday, 5 p.m.
Between three and four hours. Monday Thursday, 5 p.m.
Tuesday Friday, 5 p.m.
Wednesday Saturday, 5 p.m.
Up till 11.30 p.m. each night for a week (with dinner adjournments). Monday Thursday, 6 p.m.
Tuesday Friday, 6 p.m.
Wednesday Monday, 6 p.m.
Thursday Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Moved, That the Third Report from the Select Committee on the House of Lords Offices be adopted.—(The Earl of Donoughmore.)

On Questin, Motion agreed to.