§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, in view of the fact that manual information services produce more useful information than computerised ones, at less cost, if she will require the Office for Scientific and Technical Information to cease spending money on new computerised 151W scientific documentation information projects.
§ Mrs. ThatcherNo. The proper use of computer-based and non-computer based systems, and their relative advantages, need to be kept under continuous review in this time of advancing technology and falling computer costs.
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will require that, in producing research reports, the Office for Scientific and Technical Information shall publish all the evidence on which its conclusions are based.
§ Mrs. ThatcherIn the very few cases where OSTI commissions research it follows the general conditions which it makes when grant-aiding research. These are that the results of the research should be made available
in accordance with the normal scientific practice
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the total amount of money made available by the Office for Scientific and Technical Information for research and development related to computerised information services in the period 1965 to 1972.
§ Mrs. ThatcherAbout £770,000, excluding a relatively small but unquantifiable amount spent by the Documentation Processing Centre.