Public Access to Legislation Project
Results of Survey on Printed Legislation
Overview
Purpose
The purpose of the survey was to ascertain from users of legislation their views on the future provision of legislation in printed form and, in particular, the proposal that the PCO would concentrate on reprinting best-selling titles that are frequently or heavily amended. The survey also sought user views on the future provision of printed versions of the Tables of New Zealand Acts and Ordinances and Statutory Regulations in Force and of the Interim Index to Statutory Regulations.
The results of the survey will assist the PCO in identifying the systems, processes, and capability needed to make printed legislation and other publications available once an electronic database of New Zealand legislation is publicly available via the Internet.
Survey distribution
A survey was posted on the PCO website to enable users to respond to the survey on-line. Facsimile and email cover pages were prepared for each survey group inviting them to distribute the survey web address and to complete the survey on-line. A hard copy of the survey was included with the facsimile notification to provide the respondents with the choice of replying in writing.
Some organisations were willing to use their email group address lists to distribute the survey invitation and web page address to all of their internal and national addressees and others were willing to post the survey web-site address on their own web-page.
Survey groups (targeted parties)
A wide variety of user groups were invited to participate in the survey. Responses were subsequently received from a wide range of organisations and groups, including:
- Government departments
- Law librarians
- Wellington city libraries
- University Faculties of Law
- Largest NZ law firms
- Courts
- Citizens Advice Bureaux
- Legal publishers
- Law societies
- Community law centres
- Public interest groups
- Individuals
Advertising (general public)
Advertisements were placed in the national daily newspapers during the week of 19-25 August, inviting the general public to complete the survey. The general public was offered two ways of completing the survey; electronically via the PCO website, and manually by returning a requested facsimile or a hard copy of the survey.
Survey Results
Responses
The following Table 1 provides a summary of the responses received:
Table 1: Responses received
| Response type | Number received |
|---|---|
| Website (electronic) | 168 |
| Facsimile | 19 |
| Mailed | 29 |
| Total | 216 |
Results
The following Table 2 provides a summary of the responses to the yes/no questions asked in the survey.
Table 2: Responses to survey questions
| Question | Yes | No | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Would the proposed PCO policy meet your needs for access to printed copies of reprints? | 172 | 80% | 43 | 20% |
| Do you use the Tables of NZ Acts and Ordinances and Statutory Regulations in Force? | 142 | 66% | 74 | 34% |
| If you could access the Tables electronically in a form that included only the titles of principal legislation, would you use the printed publication? | 98 | 46% | 113 | 54% |
| Do you use the Interim Index to the Statutory Regulations? | 83 | 39% | 128 | 61% |
| If the information currently published in the Interim Index could be made available in electronic form on a website, would you still have need for the printed publication? | 42 | 24% | 134 | 76% |
| Choice | ||||
| How would you prefer to acquire printed copies of legislation? -Print directly from the website -Order via the website -Purchase from a bookshop -Regular subscription |
165 59 77 73 |
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Note: Not every question was answered by each respondent. For the question on acquiring printed copies, in many cases more than one option was chosen.