§ Mr. Geraint Howellsasked the Lord Privy Seal how much Government aid is currently spent annually on foreign language broadcasts; and if he will itemise this expenditure.
§ Mr. BlakerThe main estimate approved by Parliament for 1979–80 external broadcasting services expenditure, excluding capital expenditure, is £40,342,000. Of this £24,517,000 is estimated to be foreign language broadcasting, which can be itemised as follows:
£000 Central European Czechoslovak 1,004 Finnish 409 Hungarian 788 Polish 895 East European Romanian 675 Bulgarian 567 Russian 1,414 Yugoslav 631 South European Italian 440 Portuguese 339 Greek 420 Turkish 362 Spanish 398 Maltese 41 French 1,798 German. 1,578 Eastern Persian 537 Hindi 729 Tamil 65 Nepali 40 Bengali 395 Urdu 499 Burmese 333 Far Eastern Chinese 943 Japanese 374 Vietnamese 435 Thai 272 Indonesian/Malay 549 Latin American Brazilian 688 Spanish 1,236 African Hausa 403 Somali 319 Swahili 397 Arabic 4,544 Total foreign language broadcasting £24,517,000