3 May 1989]
THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Sir PATRICK Wright, kcmg, Mr D BlatherWICK, OBE, Mr D Moss, CMG, Miss C PESTELL, CMG, Mr G GRIFFITHS AND Mr AR PAUL
[Mr Jopling Conid] include Western Europe, Far East and Middle East. In addition to funding specific studies the Foreign and Commonwealth Office organises and supports conferences and seminars on, for instance, Eastern Europe and some Foreign and Commonwealth Office money is used to bring scholars in from other countries. We try to keep in touch with academic thinking generally through our policy planning staff, who are the department in the office whose duties include attending conferences and seminars arranged outside, and the planners them- selves organise a series of academic visits to the Foreign and Commonwelath Office, about 300 students a year. Incidentally, to go back to an ear- lier question, this plays quite an important part in our general recruitment effort an our effort to get the Diplomatic Service better understood in the academic world. We have had in the past a number of academics on secondment in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They are not included in the figure of five each way to which I referred earlier in the private sector. We are planning to second two more this year, people from the office going out to universities or academic bodies. We occasionally fund other academic studies in areas of interest to the FCO and which are of consider- able help to us in providing a broad base in foreign policy deliberations. I ought also to mention Wilton Park, which is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at a cost of about £400,000 a year. It holds 15 international conferences a year which involve British academics regularly. The Wooding review, to which Mr Jopling referred, is really the Department of Education and Science field who recently commissioned that review of Soviet and East European studies. I am told that the committee under Dr Wooding is due to report to the Universtiy Funding Council on 30 June. There are also other academic contacts of consider- able interest to us funded by, for instance, the Ministry of Defence who this year will spend, I think, nearly £200,000 on defence lecturers in stra- tegic studies and a lecturer on Soviet studies. On the question of how we decide the distribution of our funding, this is looked at every year. It is looked at as part of the top management round. It is reviewed by Ministers. Recommendations are put to Ministers. We have only a certain amount of cake to slice up, of course, but we look regularly once a year at how that money should be distrubuted. I think it is true to say tht in the present climate of East-West relations and the developments in Eastern Europe we shall continue to play increasing attention to academic studies in and on Eastern Europe.
Mr Lawrence
153. Does any of this expenditure include some Russian language teaching and training, which this Committee think is growing more and more important every week? I know that Professor Richard Pollock, who is our interpreter, is very keen on this. In fact, I hope that he passed it on to the Prime Minister when he interpreted for her.
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[Continued
Do we make any contribution to the excellent con- ference work that is done at Ditchley?
(Sir Patrick Wright) On the first point, the figures I have quoted do not include our own Russian or East European language training within the service, but of course we have an extensive programme of training both in Russian and in other East European languages within the service. We do not I think, subject to correction, contribute to language training outside-Russian or East European. In so far as that fell to any government department it would be a matter for the Department of Education and Science. We do not contribute financially to Ditchley, which is a more or less self-supporting organisation.
154. Just brains?
(Sir Patrick Wright) But we do contribute very much to the Ditchley conferences. It is a very rare Ditchley conference where there is not a member of the Diplomatic Service present. It is, as you know, directed by a retired member of the Diplo- matic Service.
Mr Taylor
155. I just wanted you to clarify the amount that you said the research department inside the Foreign Office cost on an annual basis? You gave a figure?
(Sir Patrick Wright) Two million pounds.
156. That is quite an extensive amount. I won- der how recently you have reviewed the effective- ness of your internal research department as against various sub-contracted work to academic and other interests?
(Sir Patrick Wright) We keep a very careful eye on this. It is a large department, to which I person- ally attach a lot of importance. Apart from the other benefits of a research department it provides us with, as it were, a resident cadre of specialists who for the most part do not pursue a mobile diplomatic service career. Some of them do. Indeed, I have had the benefit in Saudi Arabia of a member of the research department working in the embassy.
157. We have just met one in Beijing.
(Sir Patrick Wright) We try to give the research department the opportunities, and not just opport- unities for them but opportunities for us, by giving them service abroad, but for the most part they expect to spend their careers at home. There is therefore the advantage of longevity or continuity that is a quality often sadly lacking in a mobile
career.
158. If such research needs to be kept in- house-and I can see good reasons why it should be-are you satisfied that you make the fullest use of the material that comes forward and it is not just kept to a very narrow band of recipients?
(Sir Patrick Wright) If I may make a personal comment, I try to have a regular meeting with all heads of department in the office about every three
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