asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will grant extra assistance to the British Broadcasting Corporation external services to enable it to broadcast direct to South Africa on medium wave.

We have no plans to finance the installation of a medium wave transmitter capable of broadcasting to South Africa. The £100 million capital expenditure programme agreed by the Government to improve the audibility of the external services over the period 1981–1991 is fully committed. Broadcasts to South Africa are currently relayed from a number of BBC short wave transmitters.