HC Deb 25 November 1975 vol 901 cc119-20W
Mr. Alan Lee Williams

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the number of and names of British newspapers and publications now available in the USSR following the Helsinki accords.

Mr. Hattersley

The importation of British, as of all foreign, newspapers and publications into the Soviet Union is an official monopoly exercised by a Soviet State agency. Her Majesty's Government have no figures for the number of British newspapers and publications available in the Soviet Union. We believe that copies of most British newspapers and periodicals are imported into the Soviet Union. But, with the exception of theMorning Star these newspapers and periodicals are not generally available to the Soviet public though they can occasionally be obtained in hotels used by foreigners. A British Government periodical, Anglia, which is published in Russian, is available in limited quantities to members of the Soviet public.