30.
asked the Minister for Overseas Development if he will state the inter-Departmental committees on which the Overseas Development administration of the Foreign Office is separately represented.
No, Sir. It has for a long time been the practice not to disclose details of this kind.
Noting that the practice of secrecy in Cabinet Committees has no logical justification, and in any case has been breached in the past on some security-associated committees, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman to confirm that in those committees on which he and his sub-department are represented he will be able to express a view different from that expressed by the main stream of the Foreign Office, and that he will not be under any compulsion?
I told the hon. Gentleman last month that the Overseas Development administration would be represented on inter-Departmental committees. That is the position; and I cannot go further than that.