§ 14. Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what research the research councils are undertaking on the Concorde project.
§ Mrs. ThatcherApplied aeronautical research is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and the Research Councils have not been directly involved in work on Concorde. They have, however, contributed indirectly: the Medical Research Council has collaborated on decompression studies, and the Science Research Council has been consulted on the use of computers and on radiation hazards at high altitudes.
§ Mr. AdleyI am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that detailed Answer, but I ask her to bear in mind that Concorde represents a unique opportunity for young engineering apprentices to study at practical first-hand the developments which will, obviously, in the next 20 or 30 years, go to keep this country hopefully ahead in the technological race. Will she, therefore, see it as her responsibility to the young people of this country to do all she can to encourage and foster the project?
§ Mrs. ThatcherI am not sure that I could quite enter into that full commitment. So far as we can derive scientific observations from it, we are doing our level best both to help and to take advantage 1830 of the opportunities which it offers.