§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who is responsible for determining the print run of new legislation and the reprint runs of extant legislation. [34863]
§ Mr. FreemanResponsibility rests with HMSO under its chief executive, Mike Lynn.
§ Mr. PrenticeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if all extant legislation is currently available in print from Her Majesty's Stationery Office. [34864]
§ Mr. FreemanResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to HMSO under its chief executive, Mike Lynn. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mike Lynn to Mr. Gordon Prentice, dated 1 July 1996:
I have been asked by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to reply to your Parliamentary Question (no. 109) about availability of legislation.Our general aim is to keep printed copies of Acts of Parliament available for at least five years, or longer where there is continuing demand. Several Acts from the early years of this century are still regularly reprinted. When printed copies are no longer available, arrangements can be made with the British Library to supply photocopies at a reasonable charge. We are also developing facilities to print "on demand" facsimile copies of Acts, and hope to have this service operating later this year.We can also supply the Statutes in Force edition of extant Acts, which is of course confined to those sections of the Act which are still in force. However, Local and Personal Acts are not included.The position on secondary legislation is similar. Statutory Instruments are reprinted whilst in regular demand, and when printed copies cease to be available we offer customers the British Library photocopying service. There is no Statutes in Force equivalent for secondary legislation.If your question has been prompted by difficulties experienced by yourself or a constituent in obtaining a particular piece of legislation, please let me have the details and I shall be happy to arrange supply.