§ Mr. Speedasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what will be the additional annual cost to public funds of replacing the 79 Soviet citizens working in the United Kingdom embassy and residences by United Kingdom citizens.
§ Mr. EggarPursuant to the reply I gave on 13 December at column814, the information is as follows. The estimated annual cost of employing 79 United Kingdom citizens to replace the Soviet citizens working in the embassy and residences in Moscow would be £921,010 if all 79 were single. It would be even higher if a substantial proportion were accompanied by their families, as would be normal.
Since the employment of Soviet citizens currently costs £257,310 per annum, the additional annual cost to public funds would be £663,700. But there would also be additional expenditure on, for instance, language training and the furnishing of accommodation, even assuming the Soviet authorities could provide it, and a number of the major practical problems.