§ Mr. Dribergasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that the bound volume containing the general index to the OFFICIAL REPORT of the 1942–43 Session of this House is not yet available; and if, in view of the essential nature of this work of reference, he will take steps to secure priority on the services of binders or such other steps as may be necessary to expedite its publication and the publication of the bound volumes of HANSARD generally.
§ Mr. AsshetonThe general index volume for the 1942–43 Session will be available on 6th April. There has been an exceptional delay of about two weeks in the 2025W production of this volume and steps have been taken to avoid this in future. The bound volumes are usually published about two months after the date of the last daily part in the volume, and about four months are now needed for the work of indexing, printing and binding the Sessional Index Volume. In view of the man-power situation in the printing and binding trades and of urgent operational requirements, I should not feel justified at the present stage of the war in taking more drastic steps to reduce these periods, especially as an Index covering the daily parts in each volume is separately published and usually available several weeks before the bound volume in each case.