HC Deb 23 July 2004 vol 424 cc754-5W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many copies of her Department's annual report were printed in each year since 1997; how many were sold in each year; and what the(a) publication costs and (b) sales revenue were. [183888]

Ms Hewitt

The cost incurred by the Department for producing the Departmental Reports is limited to the design and artwork, and, since 1999, the costs incurred in placing an electronic version of the report on the Departmental website. Other costs of printing and publication are met directly by the publisher, TSO (The Stationery Office Limited), which recoups these costs through sales. TSO uses its commercial judgement as to the number of copies printed.

Total sales revenue is impacted by the number of copies sold at a discount, and is a commercial matter for TSO, but TSO has confirmed that the total numbers of copies sold are:

Year Number Sold
1997 not avail.
1998 1,346
1999 1,219
2000 1,244
2001 1,145
2002 1,085
2003 1,000
2004 7651
1to date (mid July)

The number of hard copies ordered is reducing as recipients are being encouraged to use the web-based electronic version of the Report.