HC Deb 06 February 1962 vol 653 cc200-3
1 and 2. Mr. Boyden

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation (1) what additional measures arising from the recent Commonwealth Education Conference he is taking to widen Great Britain's participation in the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan by making awards for basic professional training unobtainable in the students' own country, undergraduate study at universities and colleges of adult education, and study at technical colleges below post-graduate level;

(2) what additional measures arising from the recent Commonwealth Education Conference he is proposing to take to enable more British adult education tutors and organisers to work on secondment in the newer Commonwealth countries.

4. Mr. G. M. Thomson

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation if he will report on the results of the second Commonwealth education conference which he attended at Delhi; and whether any decisions were taken about associating the United States of America with this work in future.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Iain Macleod)

I have been asked to reply.

Mr. Mayhew

On a point of order. I wonder if we might have some explanation of the absence of the Secretary for Technical Co-operation? It is a very long time since the right hon. Gentleman answered Questions and, by my reckoning, he will have gone for four months without answering oral Questions in the House.

Mr. Macleod

I am not sure whether that is a point of order. This is the normal practice when a Minister is away. While my right hon. Friend is away I have a general oversight of his Department and, obviously, because of my time as Secretary of State for the Colonies, I have a deep interest in the sort of work which he is doing. I should have thought that it would be wholly natural that on appointment to that office my right hon. Friend should, following on the conference in Delhi—with which several of the opening Questions are concerned—seek to make closer contacts in the countries which he seeks to serve. I should have thought that the whole House would have welcomed that.

The Answer is that I do not think it would be appropriate for me at this stage to add to the statement of my right hon. Friend the Minister of Education on 1st February. A copy of the report of the Delhi Conference has been placed in the Library of the House. My right hon. Friend the Secretary for Technical Co-operation is still overseas; he will no doubt be taking steps after his return to follow up the results of the conference as far as his Department is concerned and I am sure that he will wish to give the House any information that may be asked for.

Mr. Boyden

Will the right hon. Gentleman see that consultations take place with regard to Question No. 1 between the appropriate education authorities and then see that the blueprints of courses, and so on, are published. Concerning Question No. 2, will the right hon. Gentleman consider having discussions with the University Grants Committee, the Ministry of Education and the W.E.A. so that tutors and so on can be carried supernumerary on the staffs of English bodies and can go out without embarrassment to the home departments?

Mr. Macleod

I will certainly consider those matters. The Delhi Conference flows from the Oxford Conference of 1959 and is to lead on, in turn, to a conference in Canada in a year of two's time. The point the hon. Gentleman makes at the end of his first Question was, in fact, one of the two principal offers put forward by our delegation at Delhi.

Mr. G. M. Thomson

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Delhi Conference ended on 26th January and, while we very much welcome the fact that the new Minister for Technical Co-operation attended it, does not the right hon. Gentleman feel, as Leader of the House, that it really is discourteous that he should not have returned by this time to answer these important Question himself? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the last time the Secretary for Technical Operation answered Questions was on 14th November and that the next time we shall have a chance to question him will be in April?

Mr. Macleod

With all respect to the hon. Gentleman, I feel that the point is misconceived. When my right hon. Friend took over these immensely important duties, because of the importance of the Delhi Conference he found himself in a part of the world where it is much easier for him to make contact with the sort of people he and his Department exist to serve and which has been set up by this House for that purpose. I should have thought that the House would have welcomed his tour there, and I hope that hon. Members will take as a substitute for him answering questions at the Box my own efforts today.

Mr. Tilney

Will my right hon. Friend ensure that tutors and organisers who are seconded will not suffer in their careers and pensions in this country by being seconded, in the same way as some overseas civil servants have suffered in the past with regard to their pensions from some Commonwealth Governments?

Mr. Macleod

That seems to be the key to the whole question of providing efficient technical services overseas. There are a number of consultations going on between my right hon. Friend's Department and, for example, the Ministry of Health and the professions concerned, to ensure that people who spend part of their service overseas—and this is of great benefit not only to the countries concerned but to the persons themselves—should not suffer in their career prospects as a result.

Mr. Strachey

Is not this matter of special importance for the newly independent members of the Commonwealth in relation to what is, I think, being called the dip or the danger of a dip in their economic and cultural level directly after independence? Cannot he go further than he has in telling us what the Secretary for Technical Co-operation may be doing in his prolonged absence to see to it that this gap or dip is effectively filled?

Mr. Macleod

On that particular point, apart from the ordinary follow-up which will succeed the Delhi Conference, the Department of Technical Co-operation is taking steps in discussion with British universities to try to stimulate the flow of British university staff on secondment to universities overseas. This will be of enormous benefit.