§ Mr. Sedgemoreasked the Prime Minister (1) on what terms the Central Statistical Office's databank has sold the right to market official statistics to the French company, SIA; under what legislation; and if she will make a statement;
(2) why the right to market statistics concerning British national income accounts and the financial accounts has been sold to a foreign company;
(3) why Her Majesty's Government decided to grant exclusive marketing rights of official British statistics to a single company rather than to two or more companies.
§ The Prime MinisterThe CSO databank is a collection of macro-economic and financial statistics which has been available to the public on magnetic tape since the early 1970s. A distribution and marketing agent, SIA Ltd., has recently been appointed.
The agent is a British registered company with a French parent. It was selected by open tender and awarded the contract for a period of three years from April 1983. No specific legislation was required. The contract with the agent requires that the data are distributed impartially to an agreed schedule and at an agreed scale of charges.
Other computer bureaux subscribe to the SIA distribution service and provide the public with on-line access to the data. All users have simultaneous access to the information and SIA's own clients do not have access to the data before the clients of other host bureaux.
The data remain the property of the Crown and SIA collect and remit appropriate fees back to government.