asked the Lord Privy Seal (1) why the grants for youth exchanges with Eastern Europe and Germany will be higher in 1980–81 than in the present financial year;

I regret that the figures for youth exchanges given in my reply of 19 November, which covered British Council grants, were incorrect. Information is not available on the amounts given by local authorities or non-governmental sources to exchanges in this area. British Council grants for youth exchanges in the current financial year and estimates for 1980–81 are given below:

	1979–80	1980–81
	£	£
Eastern Europe	107,010	50,000
France	72,040	77,590
Germany	104,600	114,800
Western Europe	90,410	99,110
Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council	79,080	Nil
	453,140	341,500

The British Council now hopes to find an additional £15,000 to assist the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council in 1980–81.The increases in the French, German and Western European programmes are accounted for by a risen cost element not yet approved. If approval is received the increased budget will maintain activity at a level similar to, or slightly lower than in, 1979–80. Cuts across all programmes would have produced only minimal savings in administrative costs. The British Council therefore decided that the reductions must fall on those youth exchange programmes which it considered least cost effective; that is, those with the Commonwealth and Eastern Europe.