HC Deb 20 July 1988 vol 137 cc606-7W
Mrs. Margaret Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proportion of Scottish domiciled students entering Scottish universities in each of the past five years came from(a) state schools and (b) fee-paying schools.

Mr. Robert Jackson

[holding answer 5 May 1988]: The table shows the proportions of Scottish-domiciled entrants to Scottish universities in 1982–86 from different categories of educational institution:

Mr. Chris Patten

On 31 December 1987 532 technical co-operation officers were employed by the Overseas Development Administration in posts overseas. Of these, 22 were engaged on contracts of up to six months, 17 on contracts of between six and 12 months, 115 on contracts of between 12 and 24 months and 378 were on contracts of 24 months or more.

356 TCOs were recruited in 1985; 469 in 1986; and 452 in 1987. The majority of these were recruited for short-term assignments, although the number of short-term TCOs in post at any one time is small.

Of the long-term appointments most are selected, accepted by the recipient Government and in post within about six months of the request to recruit being received by the ODA. But many recruitment requirements, both long and short term, are identified well in advance, so that our aim is to fill posts on time rather than to achieve any average period from request to placement.

Mr. Chapman

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total cost to his Department of employing technical co-operation officers in each of the last three financial years, including all ancillary costs of recruitment, travelling, housing and administration and any host country costs; and what are the equivalent total costs for consultancy contracts.

Mr. Chris Patten

The cost of technical co-operation officers (including travel and housing but excluding recruitment, administration and training) in each of the last three financial years was as follows:

£ million
1984–85 27.723
1985–86 30.185
1986–87 30.587
(figures for 1987–88 are not yet available).

In addition aid programme funds are used for certain recruitment expenses (including advertising) and for briefing and training. Figures for the last three financial years are as follows:

£ million
1984–85 1.396
1985–86 1.517
1986–87 1.663

However, these figures include some expenditure on other staff which cannot readily be disaggregated. Expenditure on consultants was as follows:

£ million
1984–85 29.289
1985–86 30.175
1986–87 33.861

None of these figures includes expenditure met from FCO (including ODA) running costs.