Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what the average cost to the public purse is for (a) issuing a correction slip for a statutory instrument and (b) statutory instruments (i) made and (ii) issued under the free issue procedure.
The National Archives is responsible for determining the publishing costs of legislation, and for operating the correction slip and free issue process on behalf of the Government.
Departments pay a publishing fee for each correction slip or free issue Statutory Instrument (SI). Since January 2019, the publishing costs have been as follows:
SI publishing fee - £305
Explanatory Memoranda (if relevant) - £145
Impact Assessment (if relevant) - £55
Correction slip - £20.50
Issuing an SI under the free issue procedure incurs a cost on top of the SI publishing fee. The average additional cost for issuing an SI under the free issue procedure is £39.90.
The distribution of the SI also incurs a cost. If an SI is issued free of charge due to an error in an earlier SI, The Stationery Office (TSO) will identify everyone who bought a copy of the original SI and arrange for them to receive a free copy of the new version, paid for by the department. The cost of this will vary for each SI.
The number of SIs between 2006 and 2016 that required correction slips and were made and issued under the free issue procedure is as follows:
Year | Number of UKSIs made that year | Correction slips issued for made UKSIs | Number of UKSIs issued under the free issue procedure |
2006 | 1554 | 110 | 48 |
2007 | 1639 | 121 | 53 |
2008 | 1483 | 127 | 51 |
2009 | 1817 | 112 | 68 |
2010 | 2801 | 76 | 51 |
2011 | 2808 | 63 | 38 |
2012 | 3002 | 74 | 31 |
2013 | 2969 | 79 | 24 |
2014 | 3131 | 49 | 38 |
2015 | 1743 | 42 | 41 |
2016 | 948 | 64 | 23 |