HC Deb 16 November 1992 vol 214 cc9-10W
Mr. Dafis

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make it his policy to allocate extra funding to the dual support system for funding higher education research in science and technology.

Mr. Waldegrave

As I announced on 12 November, spending next year on basic and strategic research in science, engineering and the social sciences will total £1,170 million, an increase in real terms over 1992–93 provision. It is for the research councils to determine what proportion of the funding allocated to them is spent in the higher education institutions.

Mr. Dafis

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make it his policy to review the dual support scheme for research funding mechanisms with reference to the maintenance of diversity and scope for enterprise in the research of the science base.

Mr. Waldegrave

Our policy on the dual support system was set out in the 1991 White Paper "Higher Education: A Framework for Expansion"—copies are in the House Library. It announced new arrangements for dual support funding which came into effect on 1 August this year, and which were intended to clarify the respective funding responsibilities of the research councils and higher education institutions for research council funded projects within the dual support system.

We shall be considering the wider issues of how funding mechanisms contribute to the maintenance of diversity and scope for enterprise in the science base as part of our wider consultations on the science and technology White Paper which I plan to publish next year.

Mr. Dafis

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make it his policy to insulate domestic research programmes of the research councils from uncontrollable fluctuations in the pound sterling value of international subscriptions through his Department meeting such variations outside an agreed budget level which is subject to occasional review.

Mr. Waldegrave

I have no plans to do so at present.

The question of the best way of handling international subscriptions has, however, featured in a number of the submissions put to me in connection with the forthcoming White Paper on science and technology. I shall be considering carefully this and other proposals for change that have been made.