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Scottish Office

Answer

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many copies of "Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland 1993-94" were (a) produced and (b) distributed free of charge; what were the costs of the (i) design and (ii) printing and publishing of the document, what were the costs of producing the document in terms of staff research costs; what were the costs of (1) the launch and (2) publicity; and if he will make a statement. [41067] Lord James Douglas Hamilton: The Scottish Office produced 5,000 copies of the publication "Government Expenditure and Revenues in Scotland 1993-94"- GERS--of which approximately 2,250 were distributed free of charge, excluding postage which the recipients had to pay. The cost of design, printing and publishing the document was £6,326.34 while the cost of the launch and publicity was £290.23. The cost of research staff time is unknown; the research for the document formed part of the normal duties of government economists and statisticians. The GERS publication is intended to provide a strictly factual contribution to the public understanding of budgetary issues in Scotland. In future, GERS will be updated annually to a pre-announced publication schedule. As has already been announced, the next edition covering the fiscal year 1994-95 will be published on Monday 21 October 1996.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

41067; 282 c1141-2W;282 c1139-40W

Session

1995-96

Subjects

Costs Expenditure Public expenditure Production Scotland Official publications

Contains statistics

Yes