§ Mr. Corbettasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) what proportion of the total moneys spent on the Software Products Scheme in 1973–74, 1974–75 and 1975–76 has been spent on computers: (a) over 1 Atlas power and (b) under 1 Atlas power;
(2) what proportion of money spent on the Software Products Scheme in each of the last three financial years has been spent on developing machines of: (a) United Kingdom manufacture and (b) foreign manufacture;
(3) what was the total amount of funding under the Software Products Scheme in 1973–74, 1974–75 and 1975–76; and how much it is proposed to spend in 1977–78.
Mr. Alan WilliamsThe scheme is intended to assist the development of software632W packages, where a package may be designed to run on several different machines. It is not a simple matter to apportion the moneys spent between packages for machines above and below 1 Atlas power; however, few packages developed under the Scheme were designed for machines above 1 Atlas power.
No funds under the Scheme have been used for machine development.
The total funding under the scheme was £62,000 in 1973–74, £138,000 in 1974–75 and £315,000 in 1975–76. The planned funding for 1976–77 and 1977–78 is £318,000 in both years.