HL Deb 22 January 1974 vol 348 c1279

2.39 p.m.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their present intentions in regard to the modernisation of the old Public Offices, commonly known as the Foreign Office.

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, Her Majesty's Government has promised to preserve the external façades, together with the fine rooms in the North-West corner of the building. Studies are continuing on what form our proposals might take for other parts of the building's interior.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that reply, but may I ask whether the Government will take the opportunity of assuring Parliament, and the public, that this most magnificent of all 19th century public offices, perhaps in Europe, will be handled in a way appropriate to its nature and architecture—that is to say, that the studies will be into how best it can be preserved as it now is and, later, into its best use in the modern age, and not merely into the question of how 3,000 civil servants can be crammed into it?

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, I think that perhaps the noble Lord, Lord Kennet, must have been reading my brief because he could not have better stated the Government's intentions.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, will the Government preserve the two great internal courtyards, the main courtyard and the Durbar Court?

LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON

My Lords, this is a technical matter and we have not yet reached that stage. In fact, the architects have not so far been appointed. The intention is to look very closely at this and we have every intention of trying to preserve everything we can which is good and valuable. But I cannot give any guarantee of the sort asked for.