HL Deb 28 November 1979 vol 403 cc400-2

2.50 p.m.

Lord VERNON

My 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 whether they support the declaration made by the International Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development held in Colombo in August-September 1979.

Lord TREFGARNE

My Lords, the declaration covers a great deal of ground and is being carefully studied. In general, however, the Government welcome the declaration's reaffirmation of the importance of population policies in social and economic development programmes.

Lord VERNON

My Lords, while thanking my noble friend for his reply, may I ask whether he is aware that it was the unanimous view of parliamentarians from 58 countries at the conference in Colombo that population policies and development policies were wholly interdependent and that one was useless without the other? Will the Government bear in mind the recommendations of the conference when they are deciding their allocation of overseas aid in the next financial year?

Lord TREFGARNE

My Lords, yes, we certainly shall bear in mind the importance of these programmes. But, as I had to say to the noble Lord, Lord Hatch of Lusby, in answer to the previous Question, we can only cut our coat according to our cloth.

The Earl of LISTOWEL

My Lords, would the Government be willing to consider allocating money from development aid to population control projects in countries where those projects exist or are in contemplation?

Lord TREFGARNE

My Lords, we already do that within the general framework of our aid programme to individual countries.

Lord GISBOROUGH

My Lords, can my noble friend say whether he has read the letter from Mr. McCraw in the Guardian of 27th November and whether he agrees with the reported views of my noble friend Lady Young?

Lord TREFGARNE

Yes, my Lords. The letter in question drew attention to the letter of my noble friend Lady Young about a question on population control—or contraception to be more precise—which appeared in a recent O-level paper, supposedly following upon one of the recommendations made at this conference. Speaking personally, I certainly agree that the question referred to was entirely inappropriate, but I must emphasise that the Government have no responsibility at all for the activities of the education board who set the question.

Lord VERNON

My Lords, I should like to revert to the Minister's original reply. Would the Government consider increasing the ridiculously low percentage of the overseas budget spent on population policies to a more realistic figure in line with the total spent on overseas aid? This has nothing to do with the cuts.

Lord TREFGARNE

My Lords, I am sorry to say that I can give no undertaking that we could do that.