§ Mr. ELLISasked what is the reason for the delay in the issue of bound copies of the Acts of Parliament of Session 1908; when the volume may be expected to be available; and what is the time specified in the contract with the printer when printed copies and the bound volumes of Acts of Parliament are to be ready after the Bills receive the Royal Assent?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThere has been no avoidable delay in the issue of bound copies of the Acts of Parliament of Session 1908. The Royal Assent was given to a large batch of Bills only on the 21st December last. After that, several processes were necessary in the way of reading over, and comparing, before the officials of the House of Lords could send the copy to the printers.
The printing of copies of the volume o[...] Statutes in the continuous edition was completed about the middle of last month, but the printers have not yet received all the "copy" of the Index, etc., from the House of Lords. The printers are bound by their contract to complete the delivery of sheets to the firm holding the binding contract within seven days of the return by the editor of the last portion of proof marked for press. Allowing a week or ten days for the binding, the volumes cannot be available under a fortnight from the present time, even if the "copy" of the Index, etc., be completed and in the hands of the printer immediately. Statutes are however obtainable separately within a short period of their being enacted.