§ Mr. Townsendasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was allocated for race relations research during the years 1973–74, 1974–75 and 1975–76, respectively; how much was actually spent; and in respect of what projects.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesA number of Government Departments and statutory bodies have research budgets from which they can fund research in the race relations field. No accurate assessment is available of the total amount of money spent, but it is estimated that in 1975–76 a sum of the order of £270,000 was spent on research into topics with a substantial race relations component.
The amounts allocated and spent by my Department on race relations research 683W under Section 26 of the Race Relations Act 1968 in the years specified was as follows:
Year Estimates provision Actual expenditure £ £ 1973–74 35,000 30,702 1974–75 35,000 21,925 1975–76 25,000 1,018 About £45,000 during the financial years 1973–74 and 1974–75 was spent on a survey of racial disadvantage by Political and Economic Planning, about £5,200 on an analysis by the Runnymede Trust of 1971 Census material related to the coloured population, and about £3,400 on four smaller projects.
Expenditure in the financial year 1975–76 has been limited because of the completion of the PEP project and because of a review we have been undertaking about the machinery for co-ordinating race relations research.