§ Mr. Stratton Millsasked the Minister for the Civil Service (1) whether, with the computerised typesetting used for new Statutes published after the Statutes in Force comes into operation, he will consider whether a programme could be devised whereby the existing Statutes in the computer could be kept up to date;
(2) if he will make copies of the magnetic (tapes used to print the Statutes in Force available to outside bodies and individuals who have an interest in sponsoring a computer information retrieval project; and if he will make a statement;
(3) which Statutes are to be computerised.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerArrangements have already been made and programmes written for keeping Statutes in Force up to date. Those Statutes included in the parts already published which were printed by conventional methods and subsequently put on magnetic tape, will300W be updated. New Statutes appropriate to the published groups of Statutes in Force will also be added to the date base. Ultimately, with certain limited exceptions, the whole of the United Kingdom Statute Law but not Northern Ireland Statutes will be available in this edition and in magnetic tape form. Copies of the tapes will be on sale by HMSO but firm prices cannot be fixed until the second batch of Statutes in Force, which is being produced completely by computerised typesetting methods, has been published.