§ Sir R. Russellasked the Secretary of State for the Social Services, if he will state the total amount spent on research into the effects of noise on health in each of the last 10 years.
Mr. GrossmanThe identifiable expenditure of Government departments on the effect of noise on health, in the past ten years, was:
1958–9–1961–2 … … None 1962–3 … … £11,800 1963–4 … … £25,400 1964–5 … … £21,900 1965–6 … … £18,400 1966–7 … … £23,400 1967–8 … … £60,000 1968–9 … … £70,000 The figures for 1967–8 and 1968–9 include sums of £44,000 and £54,000 for investigation of the effects of aircraft noise as a social nuisance, which is relevant to health. The figures do not include the cost of research in a number of universities, since the expenditure is not easily ascertainable, nor that of studies of the effect of noise carried on by the Applied Psychology Research Unit of the Medical Research Council as part of a wider programme of research into factors affecting working efficiency.