§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total annual cost of the reporting of parliamentary debates by Hansard and issuing copies of the Official Report to Ministers of the Crown, their constituents and other Members of Parliament; and
What is the estimated additional annual cost of printing and distributing the Official Report to members of the public, calculated per 1,000 additional copies or in some other convenient way; and
What is the current profit or loss as regards the reporting and issuing of the Official Report.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Strathclyde)The annual cost of reporting parliamentary debates (including standing Committees) is estimated as £3.39 million for the Commons and £1.26 million for the Lords.
The annual cost of supplying parliamentary debates to Ministers and Members of Parliament is estimated to be £1.95 million for the Commons and £0.2 million for the Lords.
The costs of printing, publishing, distribution and sales (but not the costs of reporting) are borne by the HMSO Trading Fund, which has for many years been granted a subsidy by Parliament because the income from sales has been insufficient to cover costs. Nineteen ninety-three will be the last year in which this subsidy is paid. In consequence of reductions in production costs deriving from market testing, assisted by the provision of copy in electronic form, HMSO has recently announced that the cover price of parliamentary debates and other routine parliamentary papers will not be increased during the life of the present Parliament.