§ Mr. LathamTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the effects of the Autumn Statement on the grant-in-aid for the external services of the British Broadcasting Corporation, indicating separately the effect for the monitoring service at Caversham park, Reading.
§ Mr. EggarIt has been agreed in the 1987 public expenditure survey that the grants-in-aid of the BBC external services for capital and current expenditure on broadcasting and monitoring in the next three years will be £112.5 million in 1988–89, 115.9 million in 1989–90 and £122.9 million in 1990–91. The element for current expenditure represents an annual increase of some 5 per cent. on the 1987–88 provision. The allocation of current expenditure between broadcasting and monitoring has yet to be finalised and will be shown in the Supply Estimates to be published in March 1988.
§ Mr. LathamTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will set out in tabular form for each of the last five financial years the grant-in-aid from his Department to the monitoring service of the British Broadcasting Corporation at Caversham park, Reading.
§ Mr. EggarThe table sets out the BBC external services' grant-in-aid provision for the monitoring service from 1983–84 to 1987–88:
Current Capital £ £ 1983–84 5,749,000 539,000 1984–85 5,936,000 856,000 1985–86 6,514,000 2,393,000 1986–87 6,703,000 5,820,000 1987–88 8,090,000 3,487,000