§ Mr. Dormandasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether a decision has yet been taken to locate the United Nations Office for Population Studies in London; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. KershawThe only such proposal of which I am aware was the recommendation of a United Nations feasibility study mission last December that a World Population Institute should be established and that the British Government's offer to house and contribute to the cost of such an institute should be followed up. During the past year both that recommendation and, more recently revised 257W proposals for a World Population Training Institute—which did not include any specific recommendation on its location—have met with criticism from various quarters and no decision to set up an institute has yet been taken. Instead, the United Nations Population Commission has this month requested the United Nations Secretary-General to establish an an appropriate committee to develop a programme for inter-disciplinary training in population matters, including pilot projects and the expansion of the training programmes of existing regional and national institutes.