§ Mr. Clark Hutchisonasked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science if he will now give details of the Scottish Mutual Aid Scheme for sharing scientific equipment.
§ Mr. Denzil FreethThis Scheme was started in 1957 by the D.S.I.R. branch office in Edinburgh in order to encourage the interchange of information and ideas between research laboratories in Scotland. Any interested Scottish firm which becomes a member may avail itself of a wide variety of advice and know-how on laboratory equipment and practices and agrees to assist other members with problems relating to research equipment and laboratory techniques.
The Scheme is operated as a free service by the D.S.I.R. by which over 200 inquiries are dealt with annually. This is, however, only a fraction of the total number of inquiries made, since members are encouraged to use the handbook they receive which gives a list of the 99 firms at present members and of the other 200 Government, Government-sponsored, university, and technical college laboratories.
A similar scheme has, as I stated in the debate on 12th July, been launched in Wales, based on the D.S.I.R. branch office in Cardiff.