§ Mr. HobanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost is of printing and collating his Department's White Paper on 14–19 year olds "Opportunity and Excellence"; what that cost would have been if it had been produced as a single document; and what the cost was of printing "The Future of Higher Education". [95134]
§ Mr. Stephen Twigg[holding answer 3 February 2003]: The recently produced policy document 14–19: opportunity and excellence was not classified as a White Paper. It was published in two parts, a main document and separate annexes, in order to make the document accessible to the wide range of audiences with an interest in 14–19 education and training. This allows the wider audience, such as parents and employers, with a more general interest in 14–19 reform, to order only the smaller main document, while practitioners, for example, can order the detailed annexes in addition. To reflect anticipated demand, we were able to print fewer copies of the annexes.
The main document and annexes were printed at a cost of £36,100. Summary versions and young people's versions were also printed, tailored in style andpresentation to different target audiences, and folders to allow collation of the different versions as required. The cost of producing these elements was £29,400, and collation costs were around £2,200.
It is not possible to estimate accurately the cost of producing a single document to the same timescales as the two volumes produced. It is likely that the cost would have been less than those incurred producing two documents, but this is offset against accessibility considerations and the lower quantity of annexes produced. Printing a larger 120 page document also requires different, more expensive, binding techniques. Collation costs would also have been incurred as different combinations of main document, summary and young people's version would have had to be collated fordistribution.
The cost of printing the main and summary versions of "The Future of Higher Education" was £67,625.