§ 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. RidleyDetails of the grant-in-aid to the BBC external services are contained in the published Supply Estimates—Class II, Overseas Aid and other Overseas Services. At 31 March the direct cost of individual foreign language broadcasts, including transmissions and an allowance for accommodation but no other overheads, was:
£000 Arabic 1,779 French (to Africa and to Europe) 891 Russian 933 Spanish to Latin America 604 German 740 Polish 480 Czech/Slovak 532 Hungarian 430 Serbo-Croat/Slovene 363 Chinese (Cantonese/Mandarin) 473 Portuguese to Latin America 387 Hindi 366 Romanian 335 Farsi 310 Bulgarian 292 Turkish 288 Greek 267 Indonesian/Malay 301 Urdo 250 Hausa 271 Portuguese to Europe and Africa 238 Vietnamese 250 Finnish 199 Bengali 244 Swahili 250 Burmese 183 Japanese 226 Thai 177 Italian 229 Spanish to Europe 198 Somali 182 Tamil 36 Nepali 20 Maltese 14 Total 12 718 In addition, the Central Office of Information produces radio programmes for British missions overseas to supply to local broadcasting stations in the following languages at the costs indicated for the financial year 1980–81:
£ Spanish 17,500 Portuguese 17,000 French 3,800 Dutch 1,200 German 1,000 Greek 500 Total 41,000