HC Deb 04 July 1969 vol 786 cc145-6W
Mr. Anderson

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total cost to public funds of providing to foreign nationals through official information media copies of non-commercial British newspapers and magazines.

Mr. Foley

The cost of trade and technical periodicals and newspapers—including theFinancial Times and the Economist—with freight costs, will be £46,100 in the current financial year. Of this sum, the Financial Times will account for £655 and the Economist £8,675 Expenditure is also involved in connection with exceptional distributions of trade and technical periodicals displayed at trade fairs. These figures do not include trade and industrial periodicals and newspapers put out under the Board of Trade Wrapper Scheme whereby printed matter is supplied free by publishers and the distribution costs are borne by Her Majesty's Government.

Mr. Anderson

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many copies of Country Life, Field, Yachting Monthly, Illustrated London News, and Punch, respectively, are provided to foreign nationals through official channels and what is the total cost to public funds.

Mr. Foley

The following numbers of copies of each issue of the periodicals listed were distributed overseas through official channels during the financial year 1968–69:

Country Life 162
Field 26
Yachting Monthly 3
Illustrated London News 1,674
Punch 294

The cost of these periodicals plus the freight charges for despatching them was £13,402, or 11.67 per cent. of our total expenditure on periodicals for distribution overseas. Of this sum £4,687 was expended by the British Council, who were responsible for handling the following number of copies of the totals given above:

Country Life 86
Field 5
Illustrated London News 596
Punch 142

The remainder of the periodicals were distributed through the Central Office of Information.