Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, for what reasons the subscription to Public Information Online for House of Lords Bills and Papers is not available beyond 1955; and if the Commission will extend this to the 2019 Parliament; and if he will make a statement.

The Commission has no plans to extend the subscription to Public Information Online for House of Lords Bills and Papers beyond 1955.

Access to the House of Lords Bills and Papers section of Public Information Online for the period 1901–1955 is provided free of charge via the Commons Library following agreement between the Library and the publishers of the database and in return for the Library having provided the publishers with printed volumes of the series for that period to be scanned to create the digital version.

Access to subsequent periods of the series is subject to a subscription fee which the Library has determined is not an effective use of resources on the grounds that the material is already held in the Library’s collection and is readily available to Members.