The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the United Kingdom and is responsible for Crown copyright. The OPSI announced on 21 June 2006 that it was merging with the National Archives. The merger took place in October 2006. The OPSI continues to discharge its roles and responsibilities from within the structure of the National Archives.

Controller of HMSO and Director of OPSI

The Controller of HMSO is also the Director of OPSI. HMSO continues to operate from within the expanded remit of OPSI. The Controller of HMSO also holds the offices of Kings's Printer of Acts of Parliament, King's Printer for Scotland and Government Printer for Northern Ireland. By virtue of holding these offices OPSI publishes, through HMSO, the '' London Gazette'', '' Edinburgh Gazette'', '' Belfast Gazette'' and all legislation in the United Kingdom, including Acts of Parliament, Acts of the Scottish Parliament and statutory instruments. The Controller of HMSO is appointed by Letters Patent to the office of King's Printer of Acts of Parliament. This office is separate from the functions of OPSI. Historically the role of King's (or Queen's) Printer extended to other official publishing responsibilities, e.g. the rights to print, publish and import the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer within

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. The current holder of this office is

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

History

HMSO was established as a new department of HM Treasury on 5 April 1786, when John Mayor was appointed as its first superintendent. The creation of the office was a result of the advocacy of

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

for reforms of the corrupt, expensive and inefficient Royal Household and the Civil Service. Before the establishment of HMSO, the Crown would grant patents (exclusive rights) for the supply of stationery; the patentee could buy these supplies cheaply and then charge highly inflated prices. At first, HMSO was the agent for various government departments but, from 1822, all government departments were required to buy stationery through the open competitions and tenders operated by HMSO. HMSO also took over as official publisher for both houses of Parliament from ''

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printe ...

'' in 1882. In 1889, HMSO was granted

letters patent Letters patent (plurale tantum, plural form for singular and plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, President (government title), president or other head of state, generally granti ...

under which it was appointed as Queen's Printer of Acts of Parliament ("printer to Her Majesty of all Acts of Parliament"). These letters patent also appointed the Controller of HMSO as administrator of the rights of Crown copyright. HMSO also took over publication of the ''London Gazette'' in the same year. In 1986 HMSO celebrated its bicentenary. Since 1947, it has printed 86 million copies of ''

The Highway Code ''The Highway Code'' is the official set of information and guidance for road users in the United Kingdom. Its objective is to promote the safe and efficient use of the road network. The Code applies to al ...

''. It is one of the biggest publishers in the world, having published 9,300 titles last year and holding 49,000 titles in stock. It produces nearly 600 pages of

and other parliamentary papers overnight, as well as Bills, Acts,

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

s, 2.3 million passports a year, 28.2 million pension and allowance books a year, and all sorts of other publications from the '' British Pharmacopoeia'' to guides to long-distance footpaths. In the 1980s, the Stationery Office also supplied 1,500 million envelopes a year (at a cost of £11 million) as well as 18 million ball-point pens and 188 million paper-clips.Richard Boston, "How the Government issues the tissue",

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

(London), 2 May 1986, p. 15. Most of its publishing functions were privatised in 1996 as a separate company known as The Stationery Office (TSO), but HMSO continued as a separate part of the Cabinet Office. Prior to 1996, it was the publisher of virtually all government material, such as

command paper A command paper is an official document in the United Kingdom which is issued by His Majesty's Government (HMG) and presented to Parliament. White paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue ...

s, legislation and official histories. After 1996, the Controller of HMSO remained Queen's Printer of Acts of Parliament and retained the role of administering Crown copyright."Her Majesty's Stationery Office" in Jonathan Law and Elizabeth A. Martin (eds), ''A Dictionary of Law'', Oxford University Press, 2009, via Oxford Reference Online, accessed 5 November 2011. The privatisation was not the final stage in HMSO's changing role. As part of the implementation of the European Union directive on the re-use of public sector information, it was decided that there was a need for a dedicated body to be the principal focal point for advising on and regulating the operation of public sector information re-use. That new body, created in 2005, is the OPSI.

Published works

* * *

References

External links

The Stationery Office website

eContentplus Thematic Network to support the implementation of the European Directive on Public Sector Information (PSI) Re-use
* The
OpenPSI project
, an OPSI-led community effort to create a UK government linked data service that supports research. State publishers Defunct public bodies of the United Kingdom United Kingdom copyright law The National Archives (United Kingdom) Public sector in the United Kingdom 2006 mergers and acquisitions

Controller of HMSO and Director of OPSI

History

Published works

See also

References

Further reading

External links