asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether he is satisfied with the present system of information classification used by the Metrication Board so far as concerns the avoidance of unnecessary and wasteful mailings of information to members of the public.
The day-to-day running of the Metrication Board's information distribution scheme is a matter for the Board, but if the hon. Member has a particular case in mind I will ask the Board's Chairman to write to him. The mailing list used by the Board is complied from requests received from organisations and members of the public who have asked to be kept informed. The list is continually reviewed with a view to keeping costs and errors to a practical minimum. At any time recipients can ask to be taken off the list or to alter the range of information they receive. Information sent out by the Board is classified under more than 40 different headings and any further refinement of this classification system could result in additional costs which would outweigh any savings.
asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection what was the authorised and actual staff establishment of the Metrication Board on 31st December 1973, 1974 and 1975.
The figures are as follows:
| Authorised | Actual | ||
| 31st December 1973 | … | 68 | 60 |
| 31st December 1974 | … | 63 | 59 |
| 31st December 1975 | … | 65 | 64 |
asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection what was the budget for the Metrication Board in each of the financial years ended April 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976.
Figures of the Metrication Board's expenditure for each of the calendar years 1973–76 are as follows:
| £ | |||
| 1973 | … | … | 678,000 (includes £347,000 on information) |
| 1974 | … | … | 655,000 (includes £343,000 on information) |
| 1975 | … | … | 914,000 (includes £500,000 on information) |
| 1976* | … | … | 1,035,000 (includes £600,000 on information) |
| * Estimated. | |||