§ Mr. IngramTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how much has been spent to date on preparing for the bidding process for the royal observatories; and from which budget these sums were paid. [4569]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorA total of £495,000 has been spent to 31 October 1996 on implementing the recommendations of the prior options review of the royal observatories. This has been paid from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council's allocation from the science budget.