HC Deb 05 December 1961 vol 650 cc1117-8
10. Mr. C. Johnson

asked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science whether he has now considered the Report of the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy on The Long-term Demand for Scientific Manpower, Command Paper No. 1490; and if he will make a statement.

12. Mr. Skeffington

asked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science whether the Government accept the conclusion contained in the Report on The Longterm Demand for Scientific Manpower, presented by the Scientific Manpower Committee of the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy; what steps he proposes to take in this connection; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Denzil Freeth

My noble Friend commented fully on the Report in another place on 15th November, and I would refer hon. Members to the OFFICIAL REPORT of that debate.

Mr. Johnson

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that this Report has been received with a certain amount of misgiving and that, in particular, doubts have been expressed about assumptions upon which estimates of future demand for and the likely supply of technologists and scientists have been based? Does he not agree that the Report gives no justification for any easing of the drive for scientific education in this country, and that future career prospects in science are likely to be better in future than some readings of this Report might suggest?

Mr. Freeth

I fully accept the hon. Member's suggestion that some of the estimates and some of the assumptions may well in the next ten years not turn out to be such as the Committee has suggested. On the other hand, I do not think that detracts from the value of the Report as an exercise in long-term forecasting. I agree fully with the hon. Member that, as my noble Friend said in another place, the prospects of any able young man or woman now about to set out on a scientific or technological career can never have been brighter.