§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is her estimate of expenditure by her Department in each of the past three years on astronomy.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsThe Science Research Council's expenditure on astronomy has been £11.5 million in 1975–76, £14.0 million in 1976–77 and £10.4 million in 1977–78. These figures comprise expenditure on the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, the Appleton Laboratory, the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the South African Astronomical Observatory, and grants to universities and other institutions. In addition, some of the expenditure of the European Space Agency, to which the Council makes a contribution, is devoted to astronomy but a detailed breakdown is not readily available.
Details of expenditure on astronomy by universities, polytechnics and other educational institutions are also not available.