§ Mr. Patrick Thompsonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what arrangements have been agreed for the transfer of certain responsibilities for food science research from the Science and Engineering Research Council to the Agricultural and Food Research Council.
§ Mr. BrookeAs the Government have already announced in their response—on which my right hon. Friend the Minister for Agriculture took the lead—to the advisory council for applied research and development report "The Food Industry and Technology", agreement has been reached between the Government, the Science and Engineering Research Council and the Agricultural and Food Research Council that the AFRC should assume184W the lead role in the support of basic food science research and postgraduate training, as between those two research councils. Accordingly, the responsibility for research grants and postgraduate training awards in that area of food science formerly supported by the SERC has been transferred to the AFRC. While the transfer nominally took effect from 1 April 1984, it has been agreed between all the parties that current awards should continue to be administered by the SERC until they are extinguished; applications for renewals, or for new awards, should be directed to the AFRC. The SERC's grant-in-aid for 1984–85 of £278.8 million includes an estimated sum of £50,000 representing the cost of new grants and awards in the current financial year. The SERC have agreed to make a direct payment of this amount to the AFRC to cover the 1984–85 expenditure.
The equivalent sums to be transferred in the succeeding years are estimated to be:
£000 1985–86 140 1986–87 200 1987–88 225 1988–89 and after No change in real terms from 1987–88 The corresponding changes are being made to both council's planning figures from 1985–86 onwards. The relevant adjustments will be made, in due course in determining their grants-in -aid for the years in question.