§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will now make a statement regarding the grant to universities which he proposes to make in the forthcoming Budget.
§ Sir S. CrippsProvision will be made for recurrent grants to universities for general purposes and for medical and dental education on the scales announced by my predecessor in his statement of the 10th March, 1947. Since that date, responsibility for aiding agricultural and veterinary education has been assumed by the Treasury, and I shall ask Parliament to provide £232,500 for these purposes. After the present academic year the teaching hospitals will be financed under the National Health Service Act, and the need for Treasury grants to them will cease. Provision for such grants can, therefore, be reduced to £250,000. As regards non-recurrent grants, experience has shown that the rate of expenditure on capital developments was somewhat over-estimated last year and I propose this year to provide £2,000,000 for this purpose. Accordingly, the total amount which Parliament will be asked to vote for 1947–48 is £11,880,000.