§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will take steps, along with other governments and appropriate national and international institutions (including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank) to protect and help retrieve the large amount of irreplaceable scientific and other data held on magnetic tape in the various ex-Soviet institutions, in particular and for example those relating to the Russian Arctic environment.
§ Baroness BlatchPreservation of valuable scientific data and collections in the former Soviet Union (FSU) was agreed as a priority at an international conference on assistance for science in the FSU held under the auspices of the US National Academy of Sciences in Washington in February, at which the Government and the Royal Society were represented. The Government fully support national and international action to achieve this. Among current measures funded by government through the Royal Society is the Russian subscription to the International Seismological Centre, to help prevent loss of seismic data and give early warning of danger to records.
The Office of Science and Technology and the Royal Society will continue to liaise with other scientific organisations to consider how best to 104WA provide international support, particularly in the area of preserving snow cover, sea ice and glaciological data, a task which can only be tackled on an international scale.