Lord BARN BYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the delays in dealing with complaints made by British citizens in Zambia of difficulty in obtaining exchange for remitting abroad in accordance with contractual arrangements have now been rectified.
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSA number of people are still experiencing serious delays in transferring money from Zambia as a result of the critical lack of foreign exchange. As I explained in my statement of the 2nd day of November, we have recently agreed to purchase £20 million worth of Zambian copper. The Zambians have agreed that some of this money will be used to reduce the backlog of personal remittances. We hope that this will lead to an improvement in the situation.