§ 46. Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that for the past few years the same Members of Parliament have been appointed by Her Majesty's Government to Parliamentary delegations abroad, lecture tours overseas, Strasbourg and other conferences, where Treasury expenditure has been involved; and whether these visits will be arranged in future to include as many Members as possible.
§ Mr. DiamondI agree that it is desirable that the field of selection should be as wide as possible. But the choice of Members for particular visits must remain the responsibility of the individual Departments or grant-aided bodies concerned.
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§ 47. Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he made of the expenditure of time and labour involved in obtaining details of overseas visits by Members of Parliament for any given period.
§ Mr. MacDermotI was satisfied that the cost would have been very heavy, probably amounting to several hundred pounds worth of staff time.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in HANSARD details giving particulars of Members of Parliament who have since October, 1964, been on an overseas visit where either directly or indirectly, Treasury money has been expended either wholly or in part in support of such visits, with particulars of the countries visited and the time of such visit in each instance.
§ Mr. DiamondYes. The information is being collected and I will circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT as soon as possible.