§ Mr. FisherTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which articles, agreed in the cultural agreement between Her Majesty's Government and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on 31 March 1987, have been implemented; and at what cost to Her Majesty's Government.
§ Mr. EggarThe memorandum of understanding signed on 31 March 1987 is designed to facilitate and encourage bilateral exchanges in the fields of information, culture and education. It contains a number of specific commitments on all of which good progress has been made: two annual Anglo-Soviet public lectures have now taken place; a successful Soviet Week was held in Birmingham in October and arrangements are in hand for a British Week in Kiev in 1990; Protocols on school exchanges and on co-operation in the field of television and radio broadcasting have recently been signed.
The memorandum is, however, essentially designed to facilitate rather than fund initiatives, many of which are private. Contacts have developed rapidly in the last two years with encouragement from both Governments. We are devoting an additional £250,000 per annum promoting Anglo-Soviet activities in the fields covered by the MOU and other related areas.
§ Mr. FisherTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will publish a table showing(a) the cultural agreements and conventions concluded with other countries since 1979 and (b) the amount of Her Majesty's Government's expenditure on each agreement or convention.
§ Mr. EggarWe have concluded the following agreements since 1979. Expenditure for 1988–89 by the British Council, which acts as our agent under the agreements, is shown in brackets. This is not necessarily all directly incurred because of the agreements, although it is all relevant to their purpose.
107W
£ Ecuador 291,000 Morocco 501,000 Algeria 873,000 Korea 766,000 Venezuela 461,000 Hungary 882,000 Cameroon 259,000 Tunisia 304,000