§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the report of the Court of Auditors of the European Community in relation to the delivery of food aid to the Third world.
§ Mr. RaisonThe report concerns food aid committed in 1983 and is critical of some aspects of the management of the Community's food aid programme in that year. Measures have been taken since then, with our strong support, to ensure that more of the annual programme is delivered within the year and to reduce the average length of time between commitment and delivery. There is further scope for speeding up deliveries, particularly of emergency food aid (which the report does not cover), and we are pursuing this with our partners and the Commission.