HC Deb 29 April 1996 vol 276 cc333-4W
Mr. Fabricant

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when HMSO's 1995 report and accounts will be published; and if he will make a statement [27442]

Mr. Freeman

The 1995 HMSO accounts have been audited and certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and are being published today.

The accounts show an operating loss of £39.7 million for 1995. This is mainly due to HMSO making exceptional provisions for redundancy costs—some £26.1 million—and other one-off items as part of its continuing business transformation programme. The benefits of these changes are already being felt, with indications that HMSO has increased sales and returned to profitability in the first quarter of 1996.

In addition, HMSO has made an exceptional provision of £3 million in respect of a contract with a public sector customer in Uzbekistan, on which the Comptroller and Auditor General reports in detail in the HMSO accounts.

The main task is for HMSO to be ready for privatisation in the summer. In the interim, its management are working to the following key targets:

  1. (i) to achieve an annual current cost operating profit of £7.8 million, before exceptional items;
  2. (ii) for print, to achieve 97 per cent. of all orders delivered to time, and 99 per cent. of all orders from the print storage and distribution warehouse to be delivered on time;
  3. (iii) for publications, to achieve dispatch times for customers' mail, electronic data interchange and telephone orders of 90 per cent. within four working days of receipt and 97 per cent. within five working days;
  4. (iv) for office supplies, to dispatch 99 per cent. of validated orders for stock catalogue items within two working days of receipt, and for 97 per cent. of items to be dispatched first time from stock.

These accounts reflect the seriousness with which HMSO is tackling its trading position. However, this will be challenging as long as HMSO is governed by public sector operating restrictions. Privatisation will remove these and allow the business to compete on equal terms with other suppliers. In this context, I am pleased to inform the House that the sale process is proceeding well, and we have already received a healthy level of interest from good-quality bidders.

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