THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
3 May 1989]
The increase of £4.4 million is acounted for in the following way:
45
[Continued
Risen costs between years (inflation netted with exchange gains)
A restructuring and recategorisation of the budget following the introduction of a new financial system means that, for example, some costs relating to books and information work which were previously appearing under subhead A, Overseas running costs etc, are now appearing under subhead C as a part of the Council's books operation. The total change represents a movement of £1.2 million from other subheads to subhead C
As announced in the 1989 Public Expenditure White Paper, the Council received an additional £6.0 million. £2.6 million of this was attributable to subhead C: Services and Materials, consisting of Books and Periodicals (£0.3 million), the Arts (£0.8 million), Visitors from Britain (£1.0 million) and Other Services and Materials (£0.5 million). The Council's policy with the £6 million increase was to deploy as much as possible to the operations described in subhead C and subhead D
TOTAL
£ million
0.6
1.2
2.6
4.4
17. Can you provide a breakdown of subhead D (Scholarships, courses etc)?
The breakdown of subhead D for the 1989/90 Estimates is as follows:
Visits to UK of less than 3 months duration
Attachments for study/training in the UK of greater than 3 months Academic links
Courses including summer schools
Other exchanges including Youth Exchange
TOTAL
£ million
4.0
5.1
2.3
1.1
0.3
12.8
18. The Council's revenue earning activities are expected to produce £44 million in 1989–90 (Cm. 602, p. 12). Can you provide equivalent figures for the last three years. The income collected from the Council's revenue earning activities for the last three years has been:
£ million
1986-87 36 (actual)
1987-88 38 (actual)
1988-89
43 (forecast outturn)
How is this money taken into account when the FCO fixes its level of contribution to the British Council? Although the Council's income from revenue generating activities is increasing, the increase in revenue does not simply represent additional resources that the Council can spend on new activity: nearly all the additional revenue is spent on the activities that earn it or on associated investment.
The Council draws up its Corporate Plan annually following discussions with the FCO. The Plan forecasts future trends in grant-in-aid and revenue funding three years ahead. During the period of the current Plan, the Council expects surpluses from some revenue activities and reduced grant-in-aid dependence of others to contribute the following sums to other activities: £0.46 million recurrently in 1990-91, £1.25 million recurrently in 1991-92 and £1.82 million recurrently in 1992–93.
The FCO takes account of the planned contribution from the Council's revenue surpluses when it fixes the level of its own contribution to the British Council, bearing in mind the investment needed for the development of the Council's revenue generating activities.