§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Lord President of the Council whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list giving particulars of Members of Parliament who have visited stated countries overseas, with assistance from public funds, and the purposes of such visits, for a convenient past period.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe following schedule gives details of all overseas visits by hon. Members where the cost has been borne on the House of Commons Vote since 1st April, 1971, when the cost of Parliamentary delegations to the Council of Europe, Western European Union and North Atlantic Assemblies were transferred to that Vote.
A fully comprehensive schedule of all official visits by hon. Members, including, for example, all Ministerial visits overseas, could not be compiled without disproportionate expense.
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Date of Meeting Venue Purpose of Visit Number of Members attended 22nd to 25th April. 1971 U.S.A. (Vermont) … Annual Meeting of Bilderburg Committee 1 23rd April, 1971 France (Paris) … C. of E. Regional Planning and Local Authorities—Sub-Committee on Protection of Natural Environment. 1 26th April, 1971 France (Paris) … C. of E. Economic Affairs and Development Committee. 4 27th April, 1971 France (Paris) … C. of E. Agricultural Committee 1 28th April, 1971 France (Paris) … C. of E. Political Affairs Committee 4 28th April, 1971 France (Paris) … C. of E. Agriculture—Sub-Committee on Fisheries. 1 3rd to 5th May, 1971 France (Bordeaux) … W.E.U. Scientific Technical and Aerospace Questions Committee. 2 4th May, 1971 France (Taverny) … W.E.U. Defence Questions and Armaments Committee. 2 4th May, 1971 France (Paris) … W.E.U. Defence Questions and Armaments—Sub-Committee on a Conference on the Rationalisation of the European Defence Efforts. 1 5th May, 1971 France (Paris) … W.E.U. Defence Questions and Armaments Committee. 3 10th to 14th May, 1971 France (Strasbourg) … C. of E. 1st Part of 23rd Session of Consultative Assembly. 29 24th May, 1971 Belgium (Brussels) … W.E.U. Presidential Committee 2 24th to 29th May, 1971 Belgium (Brussels) … North Atlantic Assembly Committee Meetings. 9 25 th to 27th May, 1971 Turkey (Ankara) … C. of E. Science and Technology Committee. 4 2nd June, 1971 France (Paris) … W.E.U. General Affairs Committee 2 7th June, 1971 France (Strasbourg) … C. of E. Political Affairs Committee 1 7th June, 1971 France (Strasbourg) … C. of E. Agricultural Committee 1 7th June, 1971 France (Strasbourg) … C. of E. Agriculture—Sub-Committee on Fisheries. 1 8th June, 1971 France (Strasbourg) … C. of E. Joint Meeting with European Parliaments. 6 9th June, 1971 France (Strasbourg) … C. of E. Joint Committee 1 14th to 18th June, 1971 France (Paris) … W.E.U. First Part of the 17th Session of Assembly. 20 18th June, 1971 Switzerland (Lausanne) C. of E. Science and Technology—Sub-Committee on Science and Parliament. 1 23rd to 24th June, 1971 Austria (Vienna) … C. of E. Parliamentary and Public Relations Committee. 2 Notes:
1. Members shown as attending the meetings did not necessarily attend for the full period shown.
2. Numbers shown include Members attending more than one meeting at the same venue on consecutive dates.
3. C. of E. denotes "Council of Europe".
4. W.E.U. denotes "Western European Union".