Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans there are to make printed papers, including (1) select committee reports, (2) government publications, and (3) Hansard, available to members; and what consideration they have given to outsourcing the production of such papers.

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Printed Paper Office (PPO) continues to operate a service for members attending the Estate in person; members are able to collect papers from the Royal Gallery. Staff are available in the PPO to fetch papers which are not stocked in the Royal Gallery.

For members working remotely a temporary service has been introduced allowing members to request certain documents to be posted to their designated mail forwarding address, provided that the document relates to business at least 3 days from the working day the request is received. The documents are:

1. Bills, explanatory notes and statutory instruments subject to scrutiny by the House;
2. House of Lords select committee reports and Joint Committee reports published this Session; and
3. Command papers (government publications) where there is a debate in the House scheduled.

All papers are available online and through the House Papers app, detail on accessing the app can be found on the intranet. The Services Committee has introduced a scheme to allow members to claim for the costs of printers and printer consumables, purchased since 12 June, and used for parliamentary work.

No consideration has been given to outsourcing the production of papers since the papers needed continue to be printed by the in-house reprographics team.