§ Mr. Roweasked the Paymaster General whether he has reached a conclusion on the recent recommendation by the Trade and Industry Committee for a new statutory structure of tourist boards.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeIn its report on tourism, published on 15 January, the Select Committee on Trade and Industry recommended that the British Tourist Authority, the English tourist board, the Scottish tourist board and the Wales tourist board should be abolished, that the status of the Northern Ireland tourist board should be down-graded, and that responsibility for the development of tourism, both domestically and overseas, should pass to a new statutory body called the British tourist board, supported by a statutory regional structure.
The Government will be making a formal response to the Select Committee's report, which contains a wide range of other recommendations about the promotion of tourism, in due course. However, the Government are aware of the damaging effect of uncertainty on the existing tourist boards, which have already undergone considerable reorganisation in recent years, as well as on the industry which engages in joint promotional work with them.
I have therefore consulted my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland about the Select Committee's proposals for an alternative to current statutory arrangements. We have concluded that, in the interests of the effective promotion of tourism within the United Kingdom, we should maintain the existing structure of the statutory tourist boards and ministerial responsibility for them and to concentrate on continuing to improve the liaison and cooperation between the boards.