§ Baroness Nicolasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are the relative costs of circulating the Minutes of Proceedings in plastic wrappers instead of paper sleeves, and whether consideration has been given to the problems of disposal of the plastic wrappers and to the unsatisfactory state of the delivered article.
§ The Secretary of State for Employment (Lord Young of Graffham)The Lords Minutes of Proceedings are now produced at Her Majesty's Stationery Office's Parliamentary Press utilising the most efficient and cost effective methods of production. The new method of wrapping, using a computer-generated address enclosure, shows a saving of approximately £20,500 per annum over the previous methods.
The reduction in costs, saving in time, and the ability to protect the cleanliness of the product were the deciding factors for the change. It was not envisaged that disposal of the wrapping material would cause any problems considering the limited range of customers who receive this publication by post. HMSO is unaware of any complaint regarding delivering of this item in a less than satisfactory state, but would, of course, investigate any such complaints.