§ Mr. Geoffrey Finsbergasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what date the British consulate in Miami, USA, was closed; what were the total annual costs of running it for the last two full financial years it operated; and if he will take steps to appoint an honorary vice-consul at Miami.
§ Mr. TomlinsonThe British consulate at Miami was closed on 30th September 1975 as part of my right hon. Friend's Department's contribution to the 1½ per 291W cent. reduction in Government expenditure in the financial year 1976–77.
In accordance with normal practice, expenditure of consular posts in North America, including Miami, for the financial years referred to was controlled by the Centralised Regional Accounting Centre at the British Embassy in Washington. It would take a disproportionate amount of time for it to extract details of expenditure and receipts involved. However, we estimate that the total annual cost of running the British Consulate in Miami would have been £60,000 in 1975.
My right hon. Friend has no plans at present to appoint an honorary vice-consul at Miami. The situation will, however, be reviewed later this year when the Diplomatic Service inspectors plan to visit consular posts in the United States.
Period India Pakistan Bangladesh Employment vouchers … … 1962–72 63,351 36,366 6 Work permits … … 1973–75 2,004 819 357
§ Mr. Alexander W. Lyonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the average daily rate of interviewing for family settlement for entry certificate officers at each of the ports in the Indian Sub-Continent in December 1974, December 1975 and December 1976.
§ Mr. Luard,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 21st February 1977; Vol. 926, 483–4], gave the following information:
Not all entry clearance officers are engaged full time on the interviewing of families applying for settlement. The average daily rates of interviewing arrived at by dividing the numbers of families dealt with daily by the total number of entry clearance officers at each of the major posts, are given in the following table:
December1974 December 1975 December 1976 Islamabad 1.4 2.1 1.9 Karachi 1.5 1.9 2.0 Delhi 1.4 2.1 1.3 Bombay 2.0 1.5 1.2 Dacca 1.7 2.2 2.2