§ Captain Kerbyasked the President of the Board of Trade what annual sum is paid by the Government to the European Productivity Agency; and why the British Productivity Council is not recognised as the official productivity centre in the United Kingdom.
§ Sir D. EcclesThe Agency, as was stated by the then Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Merton and Morden on 20th July, 1956, has been financed mainly by a "once for all" grant by the United States, together with contributions by Member countries of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation from counterpart funds derived from United States economic aid under Section 9c of148W the Mutual Security Act, 1952, and also approximately 150 million French francs per annum from the O.E.E.C. Budget. Her Majesty's Government have offered, subject to Parliamentary approval, to contribute up to £150,000 per annum to the cost of continuing the Agency for a further three years beginning on 1st July, 1957, provided that satisfactory arrangements can be made for the future financing of the Agency. These arrangements are still under discussion.
As regards the second part of the Question, organisations known as national productivity centres have been set up in certain continental countries, to centralise work on productivity matters and to provide a link with the European Productivity Agency. The work of the British Productivity Council, which was set up to encourage productivity, in some way corresponds with that of these continental organisations, and the Council keeps in close touch with the Agency and other bodies working in this field. Certain aspects of productivity are however of particular concern to other bodies, both in industry and in Government. For this reason I do not consider that the centralised arrangements which have been adopted in some continental countries would be the best form of organisation here.