§ 57. Mr. F. Willeyasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, the estimated capital expenditure involved in the setting up of a national reference library of science and inventions.
§ Mr. BevinsAs I said in reply to the hon. Member on 1st November, the establishment of a National Reference Library on Science and Invention is necessarily bound up with the future of the Patent Office building. The capital cost of a new building to house both the Patent Office and its Library, extended to provide the coverage of a National Reference Library, is estimated at rather more than £2 million, excluding the cost of the site. It is difficult to give a separate estimate for the share of the Library in the total cost; but it would take up more than half of the total accommodation.