§ Lord DARLING of HILLSBOROUGHasked the Leader of the House:
Whether he will make a Statement on the provision of a computer based information retrieval system in the House of Lords.
§ Lord PEARTAn operational requirement for a House of Lords information retrieval system was circulated widely to the industry by the Central Computer Agency and in June this year five firms were invited to tender. The House of Lords has now carried out an objective evaluation of each proposal and has decided to place a contract with the Greater London Council; use will be made of the GLC's IBM 370/158 computer and STAIRS/ATMS software. This proposal extends the existing arrangement and will be for an interim period of one year. It will enable the joint informal committee, under the chairmanship of the noble Lord asking the question, to consider the future use of computers in the Houses of Parliament, to conclude its deliberations and make recommendations.
House adjourned at thirteen minutes past one o'clock.