HL Deb 11 January 1988 vol 491 cc1058-9WA
Lord Shackleton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will reconsider their assertion (per Lord Beaverbrook, H.L. Deb. Col. 927) that the Report of the Select Committee on Science and Technology on Research and Development "recognised that the main responsibility for spending more on R & D rests with industry itself".

Lord Young of Graffham

The Government regrets that they misquoted the committee's words, in the remarks made by Lord Beaverbrook on 1st December. The Government consider that the main responsibility for spending more on applied industrial research and development, in the civil sector, rests with industry itself. It is acknowledged that the relevant part of the Select Committee's Report said that, in the civil sector "the main responsibility for funding development rests with industry".