Parliamentary Papers (Hansard, 9 March 1977)

§ Mr. Charles R. Morris

As the House will be aware, the House of Commons (Services) Committee, in their First Report of the present Session, made recommendations in respect of the future printing of theOfficial Report (Hansard) of both the House debates and of Standing Committees founded on evidence given by HMSO. In view of the interest of the House, more details of HMSO's proposals regarding the page-size of parliamentary papers, and information about the background to them, is given below.

	Present Size	Proposed Size
(i) Select Committees	Royal 8vo (9⅝" × 6")	Format is now under consideration.
(ii) Bills and Acts
(iii) Command Papers
(iv) The Vote Bundle represented by:	Crown 4to (9⅝" × 7¼")	A4 (11¾" × 8¼")
(a) Votes and Proceedings,
(b) Notices of Questions and Motions given,
(c) Order Paper,
(d) Marshalled List of Amendments.
(v) Debates	Large Royal 8vo (9¾" × 6⅜")	A4 (11¾" × 8¼")
(vi) Standing Committees

HMSO suggests that, if the proposals are approved, the changes in (v) and (vi) would not be effective until 1978–79 when the new equipment comes into operation; at a later stage, changes relating to (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) would be made.

A change to A4 would provide the following benefits: (i) The use of somewhat larger pages would reduce the number of pages to be printed in a year by 17,000–27 per cent.—and consequently speed up production; (ii) Uniformity would reduce the time at present wasted in setting up the presses for varying paper sizes, again leading to a better service;

(iii) The consequent uniformity of equipment would provide greater flexibility of machine utilisation and effectively increase the peak capacity of the presses.

HMSO acknowledged that one of the objections put forward to its proposals was that the present size Hansard can be fitted easily into a jacket pocket. On

550W

In the Government's view, the printing plant at the Parliamentary Press is inadequate and obsolescent, and the Government have decided that it should be replaced as soon as possible with modern equipment. This will include computer typesetting and lithographic printing machines.

At present, parliamentary material is printed on several page sizes chosen individually at various times. The re-equipment of the press provides an opportunity for some rationalisation. The most appropriate size technically would be the international standard A4 which is larger than the sizes now in use for parliamentary work. HMSO's proposals will help to reduce costs, improve service and provide the capacity to cope with the increasing workload.

In practical terms the effect of the proposed change on major items of parliamentary printing would be as follows:

investigation it was found that this generally cannot be done without folding the copy and in this respect A4 offers the advantage of making a less bulky bundle.

The second objection put forward was that with the larger size it would be more difficult to identify a particular passage of text quickly. Although there is more text on an A4 page the specimens have been redesigned to give maximum readability and the typographical layout assists quick identification of any reference.

There would also be economic advantages. Presses for standard size paging are readily available and would be cheaper than the special models that would otherwise be required. The extra cost of retaining the present multiplicity of sizes, at August 1976 prices, would be:

	£
Hansard
Capital cost	182,000
Manpower costs	36,000 a year

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Other items
	£
Capital cost	417,000
Manpower costs	222,000 a year

For some years there has been a marked trend in the printing industry toward computer composition systems and lithographic printing, and it is now impossible to replace the present letterpress printing machines with similar equipment since they are longer manufactured.

As hon. Members will know, in their Report the Services Committee recommended that HMSO be authorised to print the Official Report (Hansard) of both the House debates and of Standing Committees on A4 paper.