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SPECIAL REPORT.

The Select Committee appointed to assist Mr. Speaker in the arrangements for the Official Report of Debates, and to inquire into the Expenditure on Stationery and Printing for this House and the Public Service generally, have agreed to the following Special Report:

1. Your Committee, having ascertained that no Report was published on the evidence produced before the former Committee, in the First Session of 1922, desire to publish the evidence which was produced before that Committee, and which has been referred to Your Committee, and in accordance with precedent to make some comment upon the evidence.

2. Your Committee note that the gross total of the estimate for the ordinary services-Stationery and Printing-amounted to £3,454,937 for 1922-23 as compared with £5,019,944 for the year 1921-22, showing a reduction of £1,565,007. Of this reduction £280,000 represented a further decrease in the cost of printing Registers, &c., under the Representation of the People Act, in addition to the decrease of £400,000 which took place between the estimate of 1920-21 and that of 1921-22 for the same subhead. Of this sum of £280,000, £30,000 represented the annual cost of the Registers for Southern Ireland, which will in future be borne by the Irish Free State. The remaining £250,000 represented, in the first place, the advantage obtained by the Stationery Office in securing better prices, on the last occasion on which the contracts were put up to tender, the full extent of which could not be foreseen when the estimates for 1921-22 were prepared. Another factor in the reduction of the total cost was a fall of wages in the Printing trade.

3. It would appear that many important printing items, including the Telephone Directory and the Parliamentary Debates, were given to the State Printing Works without tenders being invited from private firms. Your Committee note the references made to the State Printing Works in the Report of 1921 on Government Trading and Commercial Services by the AuditorGeneral, in which it is stated that the loss for 9 months amounted to £32,839

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4. Your Committee are of opinion that the details of expenditure of Departments on Printing and Stationery should be printed in the Estimates, as was the practice before the War. The Select Committee on Publications and Debates Reports. Session I of 1921, in their Report dated 11th August, also recommended this course.

5. Your Committee have ascertained that it is still the case that no State Department receiving stationery or printed matter from the Stationery Office is informed of the cost. Your Committee are of opinion that the absence of this knowledge is detrimental to good management and economy.

They therefore again recommend, as in 1921, that a detailed account of the cost of each completed order for printing and stationery supplied by the Stationery Office to any Department of State shall be rendered to that Department within fourteen days of delivery.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE.
SESSION I OF 1922.

Thursday, 2nd March, 1922.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Mr. Bowerman.

Viscount Ednam.

There being no Quorum present, the Committee adjourned.

Thursday, 9th March, 1922.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Lieut-Colonel Archer-Shee.

Major Cope.
Sir Charles Higham.

Sir Rowland Blades.

Mr. Bowerman.

SIR CHARLES HIGHAM WAS CALLED TO THE CHAIR.

The Committee deliberated.

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Mr. W. R. CODLING, C.V.o., C.B.E., Controller of the Stationery Office, was examined.

[Adjourned till Thursday next.

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Mr. W. R. CODLING, C.V.O., C.B.E., was further examined.

[Adjourned till Thursday next.

Thursday, 6th April, 1922.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

SIR CHARLES HIGHAM IN THE CHAIR.

Lieut.-Colonel Archer-Shee.

Sir Cecil Beck.

Sir Rowland Blades.

Mr. Bowerman.
Viscount Ednam.

Mr. Leng Sturrock.

Mr. S. P. VIVIAN, Registrar-General, was examined.

Mr. W. G. ALLEN, of the Home Office, was examined.

Mr. W. R. CODLING, C.V.O., C.B.E., was further examined.

The Committee deliberated.

Motion made and Question put, That an annual Electoral Register is not practicable. The Committee divided.

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Mr. W. R. CODLING, C.V.o., C.B.E., was further examined.

Resolved:-That the suggestion be conveyed to Mr. SPEAKER that the Reports of the Proceedings of this Committee be distributed to every Member of the House of Commons.-(Mr. Howard Gritten.)

[Adjourned till Thursday next.

Thursday, 18th May, 1922.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

SIR CHARLES HIGHAM IN THE CHAIR.

Lieut.-Colonel Archer-Shee.

Sir Rowland Blades.

Mr. Bowerman.

Major Cope.
Viscount Ednam.
Mr. Howard Gritten.

Mr. W. R. CODLING, C.V.o., C.B.E., was further examined.

Resolved:-That, in accordance with the recommendation of Mr. SPEAKER, the Stationery Office should lower the cost of Hansard to the public from 1s. to 6d. per copy.-(Mr. Howard Gritten.)

Mr. L. C. H. WEEKES, Assistant Commissioner and Secretary to the Civil Service Commission, was examined.

[ Adjourned till Tuesday, 20th June.

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