HL Deb 23 February 1988 vol 493 cc1195-6WA
Lord Blease

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the cost of publishing the 1985 edition of the Ulster Year Book, How many copies were published and how many sold, and whether they will review the proposal to discontinue publication.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office (Lord Lyell)

Printing costs for the 1985 edition of theUlster Year Book amounted to £11,000. The cost of staff time could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The total print was 2,000, of which only 500 were sold.

It is not proposed to resume publication of the Ulster Year Book because of:

  1. (i) The substantial cost of publication, particularly in terms of staff, which could not be justified for a publication of which only 500 copies were actually purchased when last published;
  2. (ii) The availability today, in many other forms, of the statistical and descriptive information contained in the year book; these were not available for much of the period during which it was published.