§ BARONESS ELLIOT OF HARWOODMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government why no expert in child welfare is sent to meetings of the Executive Board of United Nations Children's Emergency Fund as it appears to be the custom in other Agencies of the United Nations such as the World Health Organisation, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and Food and Agricultural Organisation for experts, both official and non-official, to be sent.]
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, the composition of the United Kingdom delegation at meetings of this kind, whether of the Board of U.N.I.C.E.F. or of any other United Nations body, depends on the items on the agenda of the meeting concerned. When the agenda requires the presence of experts, they are sent. When, however, individual technical items are not sufficiently important in themselves to justify the expense of sending experts they are dealt with by our representatives on the basis of briefs prepared beforehand with the necessary technical advice. On this occasion, however, I am happy to be able to say that Professor Moncrieff, the distinguished children's specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, who is an expert in at least one of U.N.I.C.E.F.'s particular fields of interest, namely pædiatrics, has accepted Her Majesty's Government's invitation to join our delegation to the forthcoming meeting in Geneva.
§ BARONESS ELLIOT OF HARWOODMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Earl for his Answer, which will give great satisfaction both to those who are members of the United Nations Children's Fund Executive and to the other people who will be taking part in the Conference.