§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the expenditure of the Department on research and development of electric battery-operated vehicles.
§ Mr. CroslandMy Department has made a financial contribution of £165,000 since 1969 to British Railways Board work on the development of a viable sodium sulphur battery. It has also provided about £37,000 for a study of the market potential for battery-operated vehicles by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory and for commissioned research into the iron-air battery. Further work in this field involving an expenditure of about £450,000 since 1967 has been commissioned, mainly by the Department of Trade and Industry.