THIRD SPECIAL REPORT
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee
has agreed to the following Special Report:
PUBLIC LIBRARIES:
FURTHER GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE SIXTH
REPORT
FROM THE CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT COMMITTEE,
SESSION 1999-2000
1. On 24 May 2000 we published our Sixth Report of
Session 1999-2000 on Public Libraries.[6]
On 25 July 2000 we received the Government's initial response
to that Report, a response that we published shortly thereafter
in the form of a Special Report.[7]
2. On 20 December 2000 we published a review of the
Reports undertaken by the Committee in the course of the current
Parliament and of the responses by the Government. In that review,
it was noted that the Government's response was "positive
in tone, but provisional in nature" because that response
had been made before the Government had finalised its library
standards.[8]
3. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published
its public library standards on 12 February 2001 and they
came into effect on 1 April 2001. On 26 April 2001, the Department
provided us with a further response to our Report on Public
Libraries, reflecting the final public library standards.
We are now publishing that further response as Appendix 1 to this
Special Report.
4. When we undertook our review of our previous Reports
and of the responses by the Government, it was noted that certain
information requested by the Committee relating to action by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport in response to certain
recommendations in our Report on The Department for Culture,
Media and Sport and its Quangos had not been provided by the
Department.[9]
The Government has now provided this further information and we
are taking this opportunity to publish that information as Appendix
2 to this Special Report.
6 Sixth Report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee,
Public Libraries, HC (1999-2000) 241. Back
7
Third Special Report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee,
Public Libraries: Government Response to the Sixth Report from
the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Session 1999-2000,
HC (1999-2000) 867. Back
8
First Special Report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee,
Review of Reports, Recommendations and Responses, 1997-2000,
HC (2000-01) 57. Back
9
Sixth Report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, The
Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its Quangos, HC
(1998-99) 506-I; HC (2000-01) 57, p ix. Back
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