HC Deb 19 October 1999 vol 336 cc482-4W
Mr. Evans

To ask the Prime Minister who was responsible for making the Government's Annual Report 1998–99 available to Tesco Stores Ltd. the day before it was made available to Parliament; and if he will make a statement. [94155]

The Prime Minister

Guidance to Ministers on the publication of Command Papers and other Government documents is set out in the "Ministerial Code" and "Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service".

The Stationery Office, who published the Government's Annual Report, were responsible for the marketing arrangements with Tesco. Copies of the report were distributed in advance by The Stationery Office to Tescos and other bookshops under the usual strict embargo that they should not be placed on sale until after the Report had been presented to Parliament on the morning of Monday 26 July. I understand that, due to an oversight in one or two individual stores, a small number of copies were available on Saturday 24 July.

Mr. Evans

To ask the Prime Minister (1) what estimate he has made of the cost to public funds of the Government's annual report 1998–99; [93670]

(2) what was the cost to public funds of the Government's annual report 1997–98; [93676]

(3) how many copies of the Government's annual report 1997–98 were (a) printed, (b) sold and (c) distributed free of charge. [93671]

The Prime Minister

The direct cost of preparing the Government's annual report 1998–99 for publication is estimated at £75,000. The equivalent figure for the Government's Annual Report 1997–98 is £96,000.

Additional costs associated with the Annual Report 1998–99, including putting the report on the No. 10 website and preparing a leaflet, are estimated at £105,000. The equivalent figure for the Annual Report 1997–98 are estimated at £144,000.

The costs, prices, print runs and sales for the first two Government annual reports are produced in the table.

AR 1997–98 CM3969 AR 1998–99 CM4401
Costs to Government:
Design and publication costs £96,000 £75,000
Launch, distribution, etc. £144,000 £105,000
Total cost to Government: £250,000 £180,000
Sales:
Cover price £5.95 £2.99
Copies printed 20,000 100,000
Copies bought by Government 9,000 41,000
Total copies sold: 14,000 49,000
Leaflet/summary
Numbers produced 20,000 150,000

Note:

All figures are approximate and rounded to the nearest thousand

Mr. Luff

To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy not to make command papers and other Government documents available for retail sale before making them available to parliament. [93708]

The Prime Minister

Guidance to Ministers on the publication of Command Papers and other Government documents is set out in the "Ministerial Code" and "Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service".

Mr. Luff

To ask the Prime Minister how many copies of the Government's annual report had been sold through (i) the Stationery Office and (ii) other retail outlets at the most recent date for which figures are available. [93710]

The Prime Minister

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I have given to the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) today,Official Report column 482.

All copies of the Annual Report 1998–99 were sold by The Stationery Office, the publishers. Some have been sold direct to the public, the remainder through other retailers.

Mr. Luff

To ask the Prime Minister (1) what was the cost of(a) copy writing, (b) design, (c) photography, (d) printing and (e) all other relevant items of the production of the Government's annual report; and how many copies were produced in total; [93713]

(2) how many civil servants were involved in the production of the Government's annual report; and what is his estimate of the number of person-hours involved. [93712]

The Prime Minister

Preparation of the Government's Annual Report was undertaken in accordance with the requirements of "Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service".

The approximate costs of preparing the Annual Report 1998–99 for publication were as follows: design £75,000 and photography £1,000. Copywriting was done entirely within Government. Printing costs fall entirely to The Stationery Office, the private-sector publishers. 100,000 copies of the Annual Report were printed.