British Council (Hansard, 1 March 1995)

§ 14. Mr. Fishburn
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the work of the British Council.

§ Mr. Baldry
The British Council, with its worldwide presence and high reputation, has greatly enhanced our international standing and influence; done much to promote the worldwide acceptance abroad of British standards, services and goods in culture, education and science; helped to promote sustainable development in poor countries; worked with much success to improve the spread and standard of English taught overseas; and added greatly to the perception of Britain as a vibrant, cultured, innovative and liberal society.

§ Mr. Fishburn
Is not one of the great assets that we have as a country the English language, and is not the British Council to be congratulated on the way in which it teaches it around the world efficiently and, more to the point, profitably?

§ Mr. Baldry
Yes. The achievements of the British Council in this regard were best summed up in a recent leader in The Times, which stated: The British Council can claim … to be probably the most effective pump-priming cultural organisation in the world … it has both boosted the demand for English language teaching and satisfied it. That industry is now worth some £500 million a year to Britain". 1039 In fact, the British Council has 75 teaching centres in 39 countries and teaches 100,000 students a year at no cost to the taxpayer. That is a very significant achievement.

§ Mr. Janner
Sharing as I do the Minister's view, will he tell the House what he is proposing to do to enable the British Council to continue its work and improve its functions because the council is very worried that the Government will cut its money further and prevent it from doing the job that the Minister praises?

§ Mr. Baldry
The council has no basis for such a belief. Funding to the British Council has risen by about 30 per cent. in real terms since 1978–79. In addition to the substantial increase in Government funding to the British Council, I am glad to say that the council is no longer dependent only on the grant in aid, which now amounts to just half its income. The British Council is much to be congratulated on the increased range of its activities which serve our national interests without additional cost to the taxpayer. I am thinking of things such as English language teaching, the organisation of examinations and the management of aid projects and scholarship. schemes. The British Council is an excellent example to many other bodies in the United Kingdom of what can be achieved in this regard.