§ Mr. Ivor Richardasked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations whether he will make a statement on his policy for the future of the Oversea Migration Board.
§ Mr. BottomleyThe Oversea Migration Board was set up as a non-statutory Board in 1953 primarily to consider proposals for schemes of emigration to other Commonwealth countries which might be referred to it. In fact, since the Board was appointed no Commonwealth Government or any other body has produced any new schemes for reference to the Board. In its early years the Board also carried out a number of studies of emigration from Britain which were published in a series of Annual Reports. But since 1962, with the agreement of the members, the Board has met only once a year to consider and approve its Annual Report, which has been confined to statistics.
253WThere is no reason to expect that any new emigration schemes will be forthcoming in the foreseeable future on which I would wish to have the Board's views. On the other hand, it is clearly unsatisfactory to maintain a Board of busy and prominent people only to review emigration statistics once a year. I have, therefore, decided that the only reasonable course is to abolish the Board.
In announcing this decision I should like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to the members of the Board, both past and present, for their services during the past 13 years.