§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what sums of subsidy have been granted to the Mass Spectrometry Data Centre by the Office for Scientific and Technical Information in each of the years 1966 to the present year.
§ Mrs. ThatcherThe Office for Scientific and Technical Information has given support to the Mass Spectrometry Data Centre for research into data handling and experimental development of services during the financial years 1966–67 (£25,730), 1967–68 (£32,624), 1968–69 (£31,248), 1969–70 (£20,368), 1970–71 (£14,810) and 1971–72 (£10,640). No payments have been made since April 1972, when the period of research and experiment ended.
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT details of the total amounts of public money spent on each of the OSTI supported specialised information centres ; and what proportion this is of the total income of each.
§ Mrs. ThatcherThe following grants have been made available for support of experiments in specialised information centres :
£ Rock Mechanics, Imperial College 7,600 Ergonomics, Birmingham University 10,900 High Temperature Processes, Leeds University 23,400 Biodeterioration, Aston University 41,000 Intestinal Absorption, Sheffield University 37,100 This grant aid was tapered off as services became operational and has now ceased.
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will detail the number of different indexed references made available from each OSTI supported specialised information centre through the indices or equivalent which it supplies to users, in such a way that unit costs per reference comparable to those of the Mass Spectrometry Data Centre can be obtained for 226W comparison with comparable costs for other indexing media.
§ Mrs. ThatcherThe information could not be obtained except at a disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she is satisfied that she is receiving value for money from OSTI's specialised information centres.
§ Mrs. ThatcherOSTI does not itself operate specialised information services. To assess whether specialised information centres would have a significant place in the United Kingdom information network, OSTI has supported five centres for a limited and experimental period, now concluded. A review of the work of some centres and an assessment of their experience has been made independently by ASLIB and a report has been published.
I would also refer the hon. Member to my answer to one of his other Questions today—No. 87.