§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Lord President of the Council if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the number of franked House of Commons envelopes used in each year since 1970; indicating what the cost was in each year and on which departmental Vote it is borne.
Calendar Year Total Number of Official Envelopes Printed 1970 183,000 1971 550,000 1972 982,000 1973 1,965,000 1974 3,876,000* 1975 Postage is charged by the Post Office in each financial year on the number of envelopes printed in the previous calendar year. Charges were increased by 5 per cent. from 6th March 1972, 18 per cent. from 10th September 1973 and 23 per cent. from 24th June 1974.
*The order for 1974 represents some two years' supply of envelopes. As a result, the charge from 1976–77 should be considerably reduced.