British Council (Hansard, 5 November 1993)

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the means by which the membership of the board of the British Council is determined.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
The council's royal charter of incorporation provides for up to 30 board members, to be 593W elected by the board except for up to five to be co-opted by the board and two to be nominated by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proportion of British Council expenditure is allocated towards promoting(a) British and (b) Welsh culture abroad.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
There is no fixed proportion allocated to individual regions but every care is taken to ensure that the British Council's programme of expenditure in all fields properly reflects Britain's various distinct cultural identities. A substantial proportion of the overseas students placed in the United Kingdom by the council attend the university of Wales. There will be a "Study in Wales" stand at the Dubai education and training exhibition in January, and shortly forthcoming council publications include "Higher Education: Study and Research in Wales". The recent Welsh arts week in Stuttgart and Welsh art delegation to Baden-Wurttemberg were both highly successful; and a Welsh arts festival in Catalonia is under discussion for 1995.

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will outline the measures taken in organisational and budgetary terms to ensure that any promotional expenditure by the British Council abroad takes into account the distinct cultural identities of Scotland and Wales.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
The British Council has Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland committees, made up of leading academic and cultural personalities from those regions, that meet regularly to consider the quantity and quality of regional content in the council's programmes. For the same reason, the composition of the council's subject advisory committees—on the arts and different academic disciplines—also reflects proper regional representation, as does the council's main board. The council maintains full regional offices in Cardiff, Belfast and Scotland.