§ Lord Hatch of LusbyMy 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 changes they have made since 1979 in the supplementation schemes for British personnel serving in overseas countries and whether they intend to make further changes.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, rates of supplement have been reviewed annually. In certain countries for which recruitment and retention of staff present little difficulty the payment of an inducement as part of a supplement for serving overseas has been discontinued or reduced for new contracts. Regulations on advance of salaries at the beginning of new contracts have been relaxed to some extent. No major changes are planned.
§ Lord Hatch of LusbyMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that Answer, may I ask him whether he is aware that the supplements now being paid to British citizens serving overseas have been drastically reduced since the last general election? Is he further aware that in Zambia, which is the country I am mainly interested in at the moment, it is planned that the total number of recipients of supplements is to fall from 883 to under 700 by the beginning of 1983; and can he equate this with the pledge that the Government have made on a number of occasions to further the cause of the transfer of technology from the rich world to the poor?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, as I said in my original Answer, the reason for the payment of supplements is that they should act, in part, as an inducement, to persuade people to serve in countries overseas. What I did not say, however, was that these supplements are based on what are called analogues, the object of which is to bring the level of pay in the country to which they are going up to the corresponding level of pay in this country, assuming that the aid would be payable in some form for the job anyway. The noble Lord referred, particularly in the case of Zambia, to the reduction in supplementation schemes. This is likely to happen anyway wherever in the world they are paid, because the whole object of the exercise is to get the local people in the host countries to fill the jobs.
§ Lord Hatch of LusbyMy Lords, I am afraid I cannot accept that explanation and I should like to ask the noble Lord whether he is aware that, in order to get local people trained to do the technical and the academic jobs which British and other foreign experts are doing now, it is essential to have the experts there to do the training? Is he not aware that in many cases—in the universities, in the schools and in technical occupations—the performance of that operation is being run down because of the lack of foreign experts? Is this not completely contrary to the communiqués which have been regularly signed by members of the present Government promising to further the transfer of technologists? Is it not the case that more British young people, in particular, are needed in the developing world in order to help the developing people themselves to become trained so that they can do the job?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, of course I appreciate the need for experts, but, as I was saying just now, as the experts fulfil their role and create local experts the need for foreign experts must of its very nature be reduced. However, the increasingly specialised nature of many remaining posts will ensure that there is a need for external assistance of this kind for a number of years, and, to that extent, I would agree with the noble Lord.