§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps he has taken to publicise and distribute copies of his first annual energy report; what has been the cost of publication of the report; and if he will make a statement on the degree and type of response he has received on the report to date.
§ Mr. EggarI launched volume 1 of the first annual energy report at a press conference on 15 June and mentioned it subsequently at the press conference for the International Energy Agency review of United Kingdom energy policy on 30 June. About 250 copies of the report have been sent out to relevant parts of the media. Volume 2—the Brown Book—had been launched, as usual by the end of April, to coincide with the offshore technology conference in Houston. Further publicity for the report will be provided when the "Digest of Energy Statistics" is published later this month. HMSO, as publisher and vendor of the report, has also carried out its own publicity initiatives. Over 1,500 copies of volume 2 have been sold to date.
The direct cost of publishing the report was borne by HMSO. The cost of designing the new formats for the two volumes and of typesetting and proofing was about £40,000. The cost to the Department of official time 335W immediately involved in preparing both volumes of the report was about £120,000. In addition, officials in DTI and other Departments contributed to and commented on the report. This cost is estimated to be of the order of £10,000. The members of the energy advisory panel gave their time free of charge.
I have had a favourable reaction to the report from the energy advisory panel. Further reaction is invited within the report itself.