§ Mr. Dellasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimated expenditure for 1971–72 on non-departmental research projects ; what requirements he imposes regarding publication 34W and consultation before publication ; whether deletions or alterations have been required or permission to publish refused in respect of all or part of any project whose results were submitted to his Department during the last 10 years ; and to what extent he controls entry for research purposes to departmentally-con-trolled institutions.
§ Mr. BryanI estimate that my Department will spend £165,000 in the year 1971–72 on research projects commissioned from outside persons. Publications of any work based on official information requires departmental authority. The results of such work are also subject to Crown copyright and it is our usual practice to make this explicit in the commissioning contract. Whether authority is given for publication depends on the individual circumstance. I am not aware of any case in recent years in which my Department has refused a researcher's request to publish, but it would involve disproportionate effort to confirm this for the last 10 years. My Department makes every effort to meet reasonable requests from researchers for access to departmental information.