§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will estimate the savings made to his budget by establishing United Kingdom diplomatic representation to the former Soviet republics in the embassies of Germany instead of establishing completely independent representation.
§ Mr. GoodladBritish diplomatic representation is collocated with the German embassies in Kazakhstan, Almaty, and Belarus, Minsk. The fact of being collocated with another embassy does not circumscribe the independence of our missions.
In Almaty, the United Kingdom pays £35,000 per annum rent and our share of refurbishment costs will be around £55,000. If we had occupied separate accommodation, rental costs would have been up to £80,000 per annum excluding refurbishment costs, which would have been considerable.
In Minsk, our collocation in the existing accommodation is on a temporary basis as both embassies require additional space. A FCO estate surveyor is currently in Minsk and will assess the options. Savings cannot yet be estimated.
In addition to savings on rent, there should be further savings arising from collocation from the sharing of support staff and maintenance costs.