Written question asked by Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative) on Wednesday, 17 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 22 March 2010. It was answered by Sarah McCarthy-Fry (Labour) on Tuesday, 23 March 2010 on behalf of the Treasury.

Departmental Computer Software

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood of 1 March 2009, Official Report, column 916W, on departmental ICT, what fonts were purchased by (a) his Department and (b) HM Revenue and Customs; and what consideration was given to using fonts available in software packages already in use in each.

Answer: The Disability Discrimination Act requires Departments to make their materials as accessible as possible and accessibility research suggests that serif fonts are more difficult to read. For the Treasury the existing fonts on the system were examined and none met the accessibility requirements. The core Treasury font was therefore changed to a sans serif font, Humanist 777, ensuring Treasury documents are more accessible.HM Revenue and Customs purchased a package of font symbols and the cost includes licenses for all of the Department's designers (20 licences).This new range adds to and updates the Department's library of font symbols to include more up to date images such as mobile phones, Blackberry and iphone as these were not available in the original software package.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 508 c189W; 323536
Session: 2009-10
Related items: Departmental ICT
Monday, 1 March 2010
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Software Treasury
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk