The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company created in 1996 when the publishing arm of

His Majesty's Stationery Office 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 OPSI is part of the National Archives of the Un ...

was

privatised Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

. It is the official publisher and the distributor for

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

and house papers, select committee reports, ''

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

'', and the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Gazettes, the

UK government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

's three official journals of record. With more than 9,000 titles in print and digital formats published every year, it is one of the UK's largest publishers by volume. TSO provides services, consultancy, and infrastructure to deliver all aspects of the information lifecycle. TSO developed the website legislation.gov.uk with

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

, providing full access to the statute book as

open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movement ...

. The TSO OpenUp platform is a collection of integrated services available as

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

(SaaS), with the aim of providing a scalable and resilient platform that allows organisations to store, query, and enrich their data.

History

The Stationery Office was sold for £54 million when it was privatised in 1996. Two thirds of TSO was purchased by Electra Fleming, an investment trust co-owned by Electra Investment and the investment bank Robert Fleming & Company. Three executives of TSO purchased large stakes in the business:

Rupert Pennant-Rea Rupert Lascelles Pennant-Rea (born 23 January 1948) is a British businessman, journalist, and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. He was Editor and later Chairman of The Economist Group. Early life The son of Peter Athelwold and Pa ...

purchased a 4.5 per cent stake, Bob Thian a 6 per cent stake, and Richard Martin 3 per cent stake. In 1999, Electra Fleming sold TSO to its existing management team and

Apax Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...

, a private equity firm, for £82 million. Rupert Pennant-Rea remained as chairman, and Fred Perkins stayed as chief executive. TSO was sold in 2006 to

business process outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

company

Williams Lea Williams Lea Group Limited, branded Williams Lea Tag, is a global company that offers business process outsourcing (BPO) to large companies. Founded in 1820 as a company providing printing services to the financial industry, Williams Lea went thro ...

, of which a majority stake had been acquired by logistics company

Deutsche Post The Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL Group, is a German multinational package delivery and supply chain management company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world's largest courier companies. ...

earlier that year. In 2014, TSO also began working with the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

sector, beginning with the redevelopment of the

Croydon Council Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, electing 70 co ...

internal and external websites.

References

External links

* Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Norwich Companies based in the London Borough of Southwark 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 1996 Privatised executive agencies of the United Kingdom government {{UK-gov-stub

History

See also

References

External links