§ Sir John Edenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any changes have occurred in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office cash limits for 1982–83.
§ Mr. RifkindSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Winter Supplementary Estimates, the cash limit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Class II, Vote 3, will be increased by £2,086,000 from £67,957,000 to £70,043,000, required to meet the BBC external services pay awards, and for extra broadcasts to Latin America, the Falkland Islands and Poland. The cash limit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Class II, Vote 4, will be increased by £2,100,000 from £36,260,000 to £38,360,000 to enable the British Council to maintain its level of activity in this financial year. The cash limit for Class II, Vote 1, will be reduced by £7,186,000 from £229,169,000 to £221,982,000. Part of this covers the increases in Votes 3 and 4, and the remainder offsets part of the increase required in Class II, Vote 6—which is not cash limited—to take account of the payment to the Government of Mauritius referred to in my hon. Friend's reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Surbiton (Sir N. Fisher) on 19 October.—[Vol. 29, c. 80-81.] There is therefore no overall increase in public expenditure.