§ Mr. Trotterasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 29 October, what specific problems are occurring in the Stationery Office which are resulting in some parliamentary questions continuing to appear on the Order Paper after an instruction has been given that they should be withdrawn; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrookeHer Majesty's Stationery Office very much regrets that problems have occasionally occurred as a result of errors in the checking procedure. Her Majesty's Stationery Office is working closely with the House editorial staff to introduce more robust procedures to avoid this happening in future.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give details in the Official Report of the new printing equipment which has been purchased by Her Majesty's Stationery Office for the printing of Commons publications.
§ Mr. Brooke[holding answer 3 November 1987]: The main items of equipment newly purchased by Her Majesty's Stationery Office for the printing of Commons publications are as follows:
- a computer typesetting system, comprising two independently working but interlinked systems, with a total of 26 terminals;
- three helium-neon laser typesetting machines, connected on-line to the typesetting system;
- two high-volume bromide paper developing units, with a third smaller unit;
- two projection platemaking systems comprising camera stations, film development unit and computer-driven platemaking unit;
- two plate processing units:
- three twin-unit web-fed offset lithographic printing presses;
- six sheet-fed offset lithographic perfecting presses; one flat-bed lithographic proofing press;
- one 16-station finishing line for automatic gathering, side-stitching and trimming;
741 - one 6-station finishing line for gathering and saddle-stitching;
- two plastic enveloping machines and one plastic shrink wrapping machine.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will name the manufacturers, suppliers and country of origin of the new equipment at Her Majesty's Stationery Office which has been involved in the recent delays in the printing of Commons papers.
§ Mr. Brooke[holding answer 3 November 1987]: The manufacturers, suppliers and country of origin of the relevant new equipment at the Parliamentary Press are as follows:
- Miles 33 system 400 typesetting system. Miles 33 is a British supplier. Hardware was manufactured in the United States of America by Data General and Rank Xerox and in the United Kingdom by Linwood Ltd. Software was written in the United Kingdom.
- Wohlenberg Projekte Systeme GmbH. a West German Company, manufactured the majority of the 16-station flowline which was supplied by Pershke Price Service Organisation, a British firm.