PMQT Written Answers – 9 May 1994

Below is the text of the written answers relating to Prime Minister’s Question Time from 9th May 1994.

PRIME MINISTER:

Correspondence

Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) of 18 April, Official Report, column 365, for what reason no records of correspondence received by his office prior to April 1989 any longer exist.

The Prime Minister : It is not cost-effective to retain full records of all correspondence received by my office. However, from April 1989 onwards brief records of selected correspondence–and from 1992 brief records of all correspondence–have been entered on a computer database.

Internet

Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Prime Minister what plans his Department has (a) to utilise the Internet, (b) to make available on the Internet press releases and other departmental information which the public may wish to have access to and (c) to use the Internet as a means of increasing the openness of his Department.

The Prime Minister : My office’s press releases are accessible, through the Central Office of Information, to users of the Internet via Data-Star Dialog (Europe) or Mead/Lexis/Nexis. They are also available to subscribers to FT Profile, Reuters Textline, POLIS and through the Central Office of Information’s fax retrieval service.