§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how many foreign students the British Council placed on English language programmes in the United Kingdom in the past three years; and how these were allocated to institutions in England, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyThe figures for foreign students on preliminary English courses before their main courses of study were:
1978 1979 1980 England 728 762 485 Wales 30 80 16 Scotland 125 120 116 In addition, the following numbers attended summer schools in the teaching of English:
365W
1978 1979 1980 England 477 499 447 Wales 68 69 112 Scotland 121 128 113 The figures for language study on main courses are:
1978–79 1,269 1979–80 1,146 1980–81 639 I regret that a regional breakdown of these is not available except at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how many public and private organisations the British Council has used to recruit or hire consultants and short-term experts during the past three years; how many of these are located in England, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyThe British Council does not use recruitment organisations to hire consultants and short-term experts, but it has itself recruited staff from most British universities together with a wide spread of polytechnics and colleges of further education and a few private organisations.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how many staff members the British Council employs at its offices in London, and at regional offices in the United Kingdom; and how much it costs to maintain the offices in London, in the United Kingdom regions, and in foreign countries, including costs of salaries, allowances, travel, overheads, rent, maintenance and entertainment.
§ Mr. RidleyIn the 1981–82 Estimates—Class II 4 page 11–13 of the printed Supply Estimates—funds were provided for 1,414 staff in London, 167 in regional offices in the United Kingdom and 2,267 in offices overseas. Of the staff employed overseas, 1,962 are engaged locally.
The total expenditure on the staff and offices in Britain and overseas, including the libraries and English teaching centres abroad, is £59.6 million and is included in items A-D Class II 4 Vote of the printed Supply Estimates.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how many young persons from the United Kingdom were sent abroad on youth exchange visits by the British Council in the past three years; and how these persons were drawn from England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyThe British Council assisted the following numbers of young persons to travel overseas under youth exchange programmes over the past 3 years:
1978–79 13,692; 1979–80 15,023; 1980–81 12,905.
I regret that records are not readily available on the places of residence of groups. To extract this information would involve disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal what payments and commissions the British Council received in the past three years for services rendered to the United Nations agencies, development banks and foreign Governments; what is the nature of the services rendered; and for which ones the council has a monopoly arrangement.
§ Mr. RidleyIn the three years to March 1981 the British Council has received payments totalling £26 million in respect of education and training services provided for United Nations agencies, international lending agencies and foreign governments.
366WOf this sum £24.1 million has been spent on study visits to Britain, training courses, British-based training consultancies, recruitment of experts from Britain for overseas assignments, placement, monitoring and welfare services for overseas students in Britain, project management and similar services. The remaining £1.9 million was received as a contribution to the British Council's administrative costs.
The only formal agreement which gives the British Council the exclusive responsibility for agency work is that for European Commission funded fellowship training signed in 1976. The agreement was made at the request of the European Commission which has similar agreements with organisations in other member countries.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal what total fees were paid by foreign students placed by British Council on English language programmes in the United Kingdom in the past three years; and how these fees were shared among institutions in England, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyI regret that this information is hot available except at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how many visitors, students and trainees on engineering and industrial studies programmes the British Council handled during the past three years; and how these were allocated to programmes in England, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyThe figures for the past three years are—for new placements:
1978–79 1,490 1979–80 1,555 1980–81 1,606 I regret that a regional breakdown cannot be provided except at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal what total fees were paid by visitors, students and trainees on engineering and industrial studies programmes arranged by the British Council in the past three years; and how these fees were shared among institutions in England, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyI regret that this information is not available except at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how many fellowship students supported by the European development fund the British Council has placed in United Kingdom programmes to date; and how they have been allocated to England, Wales and Scotland, respectively.
§ Mr. RidleyThe programme began in 1976–77 and since then the council has placed 1,335 European development fund students in the United Kingdom. I regret that a regional breakdown could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Lord Privy Seal how often the British Council advisory committees and panels meet; what matters they discuss; and how much was spent in the last three years on honorariums and expenses for the said committee.
§ Mr. RidleySome of the council's 14 advisory committees and panels do not have formal meetings. The others meet between one and four times a year. They 367W discuss various matters relating to British Council activities in their specialist fields, including English language teaching, fine arts and regional interests.
Committee and panel members do not receive honoraria. The approximate total spent on travel and entertainment for these committees over the last three years is:
£ 1978–79 3,520 1979–80 3,512 1980–81 5,682