Flag A
Sir Duncan Watson
Miss Lestor
CONFIDENTIAL
ROOVED IN
REGISTRY No.51
SMA. 174
HICKI 2
Мойлуб
Mis Laurfice.
PA pl
ď
REVIEW OF THE FUTURE OF THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
A
17.10
At the end of last year FCO/ODA officials, with the assistance of officials from the MOD, Treasury and CPRS, completed a detailed study of the costs to HMG (including aid and defence costs) of HMG's continued responsibility for the remaining 18 Dependent Territories and 6 Associated States (now 5, as Grenada is independent). The study included a review of policy objectives and thé assumptions on which these rest, and an examination of policy options for the period 1974/78, with a look ahead to 1983. The study was conducted within the framework of the system of Programme Analysis and Review (PAR) instituted by the last Government, the purpose of which was to examine the cost- effectiveness of programmes involving substantial governmental expenditure. I attach a copy of the resultant Report.
2. The intention was that the Report once completed should be submitted to Ministers collectively, but in the event this was not possible before the general election. The Report, which is the fruit of nearly a year's work, was drafted within the framework of the PAR approach, which assesses costs and benefits in financial terms, and does not readily lend itself to a review of unquantifiable costs and benefits such as those associated with overseas policy options; for this reason the Report is rather longer than it would otherwise have been, and its presentation is to some extent artificial, for the main costs and benefits are political and unquantifiable. The Report went to print on 15 November 1973, and is therefore already a little dated (thus Grenada is referred to in the Report as an Associated State but has since achieved independence; the possible effects of increased oil prices were not, of course, taken into account, and some more recent statistical material may
/now
CONFIDENTIAL