HC Deb 19 May 2004 vol 421 cc1092-3W
Norman Lamb

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much the production of his Department's latest annual report cost; how many copies were printed; how many copies of it were sold at its cover price; to whom copies of the report have been provided free of charge; and how many copies were provided free of charge. [171150]

Mr. Paul Murphy

The Northern Ireland Office Departmental Report 2004 way only completed on 30 April 2004 and made available to purchase on 7 May 2004, details of sales and final costs are not yet available. However, the details for the annual report for 2003 which I expect to be very similar to those for 2004, are as followsThe Northern Ireland Office Departmental Report 2003 was produced by The Stationary Office (TSO). Costs of printing and publication are met directly by TSO and do not fall to Government. The Department was invoiced for the 180 copies that it requested. 856 copies were printed and TSO's records show that eight copies have been sold at its cover price of £30, and an additional 597 copies were sold at a reduced charge. The NIO supplied copies of the report free of charge to 159 parties. A list of those interested parties is set out in the following table. The 2004 report is available in the Libraries of the House and to the public free of charge on the NIO website at http://www.nio.gov.uk/pdf/deptreport2004 pdf.

Distribution of the NIO Departmental Report 2003
Secretary of State, Ministers, Senior NIO Officials 20
Heads of NIO Agencies and Legal Offices 5
Parliamentary/House of Commons Library 28
NIO Information Offices (Belfast and London) 9
HM Treasury 3
Scottish and Welsh Offices 2
Head of NICS and Northern Ireland Permanent Secretaries 11
Northern Ireland MP's 18
Other interested MP's 3
1 MEP 1
Members of the House of Lords with an interest in Northern Ireland 25
Treasury Select Committee 20
Northern Ireland Select Committee 14
Total 159