§ Mr. James Lamondasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made in setting up the bank of cultural data planned in the Helsinki Final Act.
§ Mrs. HartI have been asked to reply.
It was agreed by European member States of UNESCO, in the autumn of 1975, that UNESCO should be asked to undertake this project. The 19th General Conference of UNESCO subsequently approved its inclusion in the programme and budget for 1977 –78. A meeting of experts serving in a private capacity was organised jointly by UNESCO and the Romanian National Commission for UNESCO at Bucharest in March 1977 to study the possibility of setting up the proposed cultural data bank. A United Kingdom expert attended the meeting. The meeting concluded that a cultural data bank would be important in promoting stronger co-operation between European countries, and made certain detailed recommendations which will be considered by a further meeting of experts scheduled to be held in 1978.