Commonwealth Institute (Hansard, 22 March 1994)

§ Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many members of the Commonwealth Institute staff have now been made redundant or have received notice of redundancy; and what arrangements the Government have made for funding those redundancies.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
Some 28 staff have been made redundant this year; a further 16 members of staff have recently received notice of redundancy; three employees on fixed-term contracts have not had them renewed.
An FCO grant of £2.4 million is being made available over the next two years to meet redundancy costs.
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§ Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth about the future of the Commonwealth Institute.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
The Commonwealth Secretary-General serves, ex officio, as a governor on the institute's board. The assessors on the board, appointed by my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary to represent Government Departments in the United Kingdom, maintain a continuing dialogue with all governors, including the Secretary-General.

§ Mr. Worthington
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who are the leaseholders for the Commonwealth Institute site in Kensington.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
Under the Commonwealth Institute Act 1958, the Commonwealth Institute trustees are the leaseholders.