§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what financial contribution is made by Her Majesty's Government to the work of the ad hoc group, immigration, including the cost of time of civil servants spent at meetings, allocations for travel costs and any other specific allocations; and on which vote the costs fall.
§ Mr. Charles WardleExcept during the United Kingdom presidency, there have been no direct financial subventions from United Kingdom funds to the work of the ad hoc working group on immigration.
Meetings of the ad hoc group, usually in the presidency capital, and of its subgroups, usually in Brussels, are serviced by the secretariat of the Council of the European Communities, and accommodation and so on are provided by the presidency or the secretariat respectively.
Attendance at the preparation for meetings forms part of the normal duties of officials, most of whom are from the immigration and nationality department, their salary and so on and travelling subsistence costs form part of the overall expenditure of the Department, which is met from class IX vote 3.
A detailed breakdown of the staff costs of all those involved in this work could be provided only at disproportionate cost.