§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will give the financial allocations to the Research Councils for 1991–92, identifying programmes and capital programmes earmarked in advance by Government; and what were the comparable allocations in the three previous years in real terms.
§ Mr. Alan Howarth[pursuant to his reply, 8 February 1991, c. 256]: I regret that there were some errors in the figures given in the original answer.
The corrected answer is as follows:
The allocations to the five research councils for 1991–92 announced on 24 January are as follows:
£ million AFRC 93.4 ESRC 35.5 MRC 200.4 NERC 122.6 SERC 451.3 None of the additional amounts announced this year was allocated to particular programmes in advance. The sums so allocated to particular programmes for 1991–92 in earlier settlements were as follows; redundancy costs as a result of reductions in MAFF research commissions £6.0 million (AFRC), AIDS £8.5 million (MRC), British Antarctic Survey (BAS) £6.2 million (NERC), British Geological Survey (BGS) £7.0 million (NERC), CERN £7.3 million (SERC), ERS2 instruments £2.0 million (SERC).
For the three preceding years the total grant to each council and the sums specifically allocated in earlier settlements (at 1991–92 prices) were as follows:
£ million Council Grant in Aid Specific Allocations 1990–91 AFRC 91.8 MAFF 4.2 ESRC 38.4 — MRC 196.8 AIDS 8.5 NERC 114.2 BAS 31.2, BGS 5.3 SERC 463.3 CERN 7.7, ERS2 2.1 1989–90 AFRC 87.4 MAFF 3.4 ESRC 36.6 — MRC 201.9 AIDS 9.2 NERC 131.6 BAS 10.5, BGS 3.4 SERC 463.5 CERN 10.6 1988–89 AFRC 71.1 — ESRC 33.7 — MRC 178.7 AIDS 7.3 NERC 110.7 BAS 10.5 SERC 446.2 —