The British Antarctic Territory
consists of that segment of the Antarctic continent lying south of latitude
60°S and between longitudes 20° and 80°W, comprising the Antarctic Peninsula
with all
Two British Antarctic
Survey (BAS) research stations are manned the year round - Rothera on Adelaide
Island, and Halley V on moving ice off the Caird Coast. There is a summer-only
station at Signy in the South Orkney Islands.
Until
1989, the British Antarctic Territory was administered by a high commissioner,
resident in the Falkland Islands. In 1989, the administration was moved to the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London. The office of commissioner is held by
the head of Overseas Territories Department and the administrator is the head
of the Polar Regions Section.
Since 1967, the
Department of Education and Science in the UK, later the Office of Science and
Technology, has been financially responsible for the British Antarctic Survey
through the Natural Environment Research Council. Station commanders are
appointed magistrates and the courts of the territory are presided over by a
senior magistrate or a judge of the Supreme Court. A Court of Appeal was set up
in 1965 for hearing appeals from the territory.
Capital: -
Government: British Overseas Territory
Area: 1.709.400
km²
Population: 0 (2008)
Currency: British Pound (100 pence)
Internet TLD: -
Dialling code: -
Links
Flag of
The website of the Philatelic Service (
Country description from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Description of
Official website of the British Antarctic Survey.
Stamp catalogue
date:
designer: CASB Studio, British Antarctic Survey (photographs)
printer: Johan Enschede
Security Print,
perforated: 14
size souv. sheet: 97 mm (diameter)
1 aspects of ice core
gathering, text "INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR 2007-2008"
£ 2 satellite
image of
multicoloured
(cat.
Michel block 14/SG MS 460/Yvert BF)
last revised: