§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what estimate he has made of the cost of(a) reports and (b) publishing starred decisions of the National Insurance Commissioners (i) in loose leaf format, (ii) in bound format and (iii) on the Internet; and if he will make a statement. [111391]
§ Jane KennedyThe publication of reported decisions is currently under review and the estimates of costs are not known.
(i) At present the Commissioner's office only publishes reported decisions in loose-leaf format. Not all starred decisions are reported. There are normally 100 starred decisions a year of which normally about 50 are reported. The DSS publish decisions in loose-leaf form and I am therefore unable to give an estimate concerning cost.
(ii) Reported decisions have not been kept in bound format since 1990. Until then bound volumes of reported decisions were published every two years but this was judged to be uneconomic. Improved arrangements for publication of reported decisions are currently being discussed with the DSS and commercial publishers.
43W(iii) At present the costs of publishing decisions on the Internet are borne internally from existing budgets by the Court Service Agency.