§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will list in the Official Report the companies and projects which have received financial assistance under the Science and Technology Act in the last 12 months for which figures are available ; and if he will publish the amounts of the individual grants.
§ Mr. MeacherExpenditure by the Department of Industry under the powers contained in the Science and Technology Act is expected to total £45 million in 1974–75. About two-fifths of this is accounted for by the Industrial Research Establishments, and a further £10.2 million by support to ICL's computer development programme. The remainder is distributed between a total of about 350 individual grants and contracts, most of which are small. It would not be practicable, for reasons of commercial confidence, to publish a full list, but a breakdown of the forecast expenditure in 197475 is as follows:
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2. TECHNOLOGICAL AND INDUSTRIAL SPONSORSHIP (CLASS IV, VOTE 4) INDUSTRIAL SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT CONTRACTS Department of Industry Divisions Industry Atomic Energy Authority Universities Research Associations Royal Radar Establishment Pre-production Order Purchases Minerals, Metals, Electrical Engineering, Plant Process and Industrial Technologies … … … 737 32 810 20 — — Mechanical Engineering … … … 105 — 20 30 — 112 Computers, Systems and Electronics … — — — — — 180 Electronics R&D 1,200 — — — 600 — Computer R&D 1,200 — 15 — 600 — Instruments R&D 160 — — — — — Automation R&D 7 27 — 5 — — 3,409 59 845 55 600 292 Sub Total … 5,260 National Computing Centre (Grant in Aid) … … … … … … … 1,150 3. SUPPORT TO INTERNAITONAL COMPUTERS (HOLDINGS) LTD. (CLASS IV, VOTE 5) … … 10,200 GRAND TOTAL … 44,752 The above figures represent gross expenditure. Receipts on these programmes are expected to total £4,200,000.