Annex B
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE JOINT WORKING PARTY
Nomenclature
So far as they have to be described as separate entities, the White- hall wing of the F.C.O. should be the F.C.O. and the F.C.O. (O.D.A.) should be the O.D.A.
Parliamentary Questions
2. It has been agreed that the Minister for Overseas Development will answer questions in Parliament on overseas development matters, beginning at Question No. 30 on the Mondays on which the F.C.O. is top for questions. It will be necessary to retain the Parliamentary Clerk's Office in the O.D.A. to handle aid PQs, the answers to which will be prepared in the O.D.A. with F.C.O. Departments being consulted as necessary in accordance with current practice. There will be questions on aid matters which may give rise to supplementary questions of a broader political kind, or questions on foreign policy which will give rise to supplementaries about aid. This means that the Minister for Overseas Development or the Secretary of State (as the case may be) will need comprehensive briefing. Officers preparing initial drafts must consider if there is any matter on which they require advice from the other wing. It will be left to the Parliamentary Clerks in the F.C.O. and the O.D.A. to deal with any procedural problems that might arise in practice, and it will be their duty to make sure that the briefing is as comprehensive as the situation requires. The F.C.O. Private Office will deal in the first instance with requests from No. 10 for advice on questions addressed to the Prime Minister about the merger, but initial action on the replies will be taken by the O.D.A.
3. Similar procedures will apply for Parliamentary Questions for answer in the House of Lords. Copies of answers to House of Lords PQs should, however, invariably be sent to Lord Lothian's Private Office.
Briefing for the Secretary of State on Aid Matters
4.
Any briefing which the Secretary of State may require on aid matters for Cabinet meetings and other occasions (e.g. visits by Foreign and Commonwealth Ministers when aid matters might be raised) will be pre- pared by the O.D.A. in the form required by the Secretary of State according to instructions from his Private Office. The procedure for obtaining briefs for the Secretary of State will be as follows:-
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