§ Mr. ChidgeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much her Department spends on biking press releases to(a) hon. Members and (b) other individuals or groups, each time her Department issues a press release; how many such press releases were issued by her Department (i) in the period 1 May to 1 July and 359W (ii) in the period 1 January to 1 March; and if she will review her Department's use of couriers to deliver press releases and investigate the possibility of using fax or e-mail. [8815]
§ Mr. Field[holding answer 17 July 1997]: The Department of Social Security's press releases are made available to hon. Members and to the media via the Central Office of Information's news distribution service. NDS's delivery mechanisms include a newswire service which, among others, supplies press releases to the parliamentary online information service, which can be accessed by all Members of Parliament and peers, hand deliveries, fax and postal services, online databases and a widely accessed world wide web site.
These methods are used either singly or in combination to ensure the most cost-effective methods are used to reach the relevant target audiences and to suit the nature of the documents—for example, whether press releases are dispatched on their own, or accompanied by reports, consultation documents and so on. No separate costing is available for the hand delivery service alone.
The Department also runs its own mailing list for press releases for organisations such as welfare rights and charities. This is a postal service.
The number of press releases issued from 1 May to 1 July was 52 and from 1 January to 1 March was 66.