§ Sir R. Russellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much money has been allocated to scientific research in universities in each of the last five years; and how much of these sums has been specifically allocated for the purchase of equipment.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsFor expenditure from general recurrent grant I would refer the hon. Member to Appendix II of Cmnd. 3007, which estimates this as rising from £21.4 million in 1961–62 to £44 million in 1965–66. This includes expenditure on the renewal and replacement of scientific equipment in existing buildings, but no specific allocations are made for this purpose. Substantial capital sums have also been made available through the University Grants Committee for new scientific buildings and their equipment, during the period in question, but it is not possible to distinguish how much of this is attributable to research and how much to teaching requirements since the same facilities are available for both purposes. Universities also undertake substantial research commissioned by Government Departments on contract.
Money is also allocated for scientific research in universities by the Research Councils. Details are in Appendix III of Cmnd. 3007. It is not possible to say how much of these sums has been specifically allocated to the purchase of equipment, but the capital element of which some part relate to equipment, for each of the five years is as follows:
£ million 1961–62 … … … 2.27 1962–63 … … … 2.93 1963–64 … … … 3.44 1964–65 … … … 3.74 1965–66 … … … 4.51 These figures do not include support in the field now covered by the Natural Environment Research Council except for the year 1965–66, as this Council was only set up in June last year.