I've just received the 4 volumes of Social Security Legislation 2006. There is now no index to any of the volumes! Am I alone in thinking that it will more difficult to find subjects/entries in future?

Crikey - no index would be terrible. Is this definitely intentional (ours haven't come yet) and not just a cock up at the printers?

Nope - there's not a mistake; it says in the Preface to Volume 1 'We have also omitted the index'!

The index has been removed from all 4 volumes of Social Security Legislation this year and I thought it would be helpful if I provided the reasons behind the decision and some suggestions on navigating the volumes through other means.

The removal of the index was necessary as we were faced with the need to reduce the overall page extent of the series as volumes 2 and 3 in particular were getting too big to be bound. It has been a difficult decision as whatever action we took would impact on users. We would have preferred to leave the volumes as they were but in practical terms this was just not feasible. After consultation with various customers we decided to remove the index from each volume rather than remove content from the main body of legislation/commentary as it was felt that information could be located in the volumes using other methods.

The combination of the 'How to Use This Book' section and the running heads text on the top of each page enable lawyers and non-lawyers alike to navigate the material effectively, for example, by taking the references in Appeal Papers or a number of short guides to identify the relevant statutory material and then move to its text in the volumes, one that shows the dates of changes, and the commentary attached to it. The Arrangement of sections at the beginning of each statute can afford further aid and the division of the mass of Regulations according to type of benefit will provide further help, with each set having its own 'arrangement of regulations'.

I very much hope this provides a clear explanation of why we have made these changes, and some assistance on other methods of navigation. If anyone would like to give feedback in light of this, or discuss it in more detail, I would be very interested in hearing from you.

Fiona Keyte
Publishing Editor
Sweet & Maxwell
100 Avenue Road
London
NW3 3PF

[email protected]

From our point of view as a Welfare Rights Team who use these books every day and are used to checking the index quickly to get to a subject I think that omitting them from the current volumes is going to cause us all difficulty.

Could there not be a separate index that could be available online to allow people to download it if they wished? Presumably this has already been compiled since you have stated above that the combination of legislation, commentary & index as a whole made the volumes too large.

I am pleased to say the Index to the Social Security Volumes is now up on the Sweet & Maxwell website and can be located at:
http://www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/books/ss/index.pdf

If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your machine you will need to download it first from the internet (this is free) by clicking on the address below and following the instructions.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further information.

Hi Fiona

Your message is both good news and bad. Good, that the index is there. Bad, that it is only accessible on the internet (not all Tribunals Service venues have access, and anyway I always prepare my cases sitting on the sofa at home with a large heavy cat on my lap) and in pdf format, which is a PIG to read on line, especially if you haven't got broadband. If it has to be on line, could I plead for it to be converted at some future date to web page or html format, or I have to say it's really not a lot of use. pdf is for documents that are intended to be printed, not for documents created for the web.

Yours in hope

Brigid

Presumably the idea is to print it out.

Fine, if someone will pay me for the time, electricity, use of printer cartridge and paper on my home PC (and sort out the inevitable mess when the printer jams!): The Tribunals Setrvice gives me the books free!

Brigid

have (belatedly) added a link to the index from the 'reference materials' section of toolkit ...