§ Mr. Bruceasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what costs have so far been incurred and what are the expected final costs involved in the transfer of staff of the Scottish Plant Breeding Station in Edinburgh to the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Dundee.
§ Mr. John MackayThe gross cost of transferring staff from the Scottish Plant Breeding Station at Pentlandfield to the Scottish Crop Research Institute at Invergowrie is £230,000 to date, and is expected to rise to about £400,000 by completion of the merger. Gross capital costs incurred since the merger relate both to accommodation for transferred staff, and the development programme of the new Institute. The estimate of the capital costs already committed on projects directly related to the merger are approximately £3.3 million. Detailed project costs for further accommodation required are not yet available, but may amount to about £2 million. These figures do not take account of any savings likely to arise from the rationalisation of all provision on a single site.