§ Mr. Franksasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he proposes any changes to the cash limits for his Department's Votes for science funding in 1987–88.
Mr. JacksonYes. Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates the 1987–88 cash limits for class XII, votes 5 to 11 will be increased as follows :
£ million Vote Description of expenditure Current cash limit Revision Revised cash limit 5 AFRC 52.927 +1.5 54.427 6 MRC 133.530 +6.3 139.830 7 NERC 71.270 +0.8 72.070 8 SERC 350.252 +7.5 357.752 9 ESRC 240.45 +0.8 24.845 10 BM(NH) 17.558 +0.3 17.858 11 Other Science 7.667 +0.3 7.967 The changes in the cash limits are made to enable the Science Vote bodies to sustain the work of the most able scientists and their teams as my right hon. Friend announced on 1 April 1987, at column 1098. The new cash limit for the Medical Research Council includes an additional £2,500,000 to enable the council to carry out a directed programme of AIDS research as announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services on 25 February 1987, at column 2729. All these increases are being charged to the reserve, and will not therefore add to the public expenditure planning total.