§ Lord IRONSIDEasked Her Majesty's Government:
- (1) how much of the Community budget has the Commission of the European Communities allocated to research in each year since the accession of the United Kingdom;
- (2) What proportion of these funds has been spent in the United Kingdom in each of these years;
- (3) how such funds have been allocated in the United Kingdom between the public and private sector during this period.
§ Lord JACQUESThe main Community research programme is funded from Chapter 33 of the Community budget,678WA but several small research programmes are financed from other parts of the budget. The provision for research in the Community budget in the years 1973 to 1976 has been:
Finance for the Joint Research Centre is not available to support research in the Member States. On fusion the proportion of funds spent in the United Kingdom has been in the region of 20 per cent. each year. United Kingdom contractors fared less well on other research programmes in the early years, but are now attracting 10 to 20 per cent. of the money available for contracts in most cases. Precise figures are not available because the Commission are responsible for the management of programmes, including the negotiation of contracts, and they do not publish this information.
£ million 1973 1974 1975 1976 Chapter 33 Joint Research Centre 19.9 20.2 25.6 29.9 Fusion 4.8 8.8 8.6 8.7 Other Research programmes 4.8 4.3 6.6 11.0 Agricultural Research — — — 1.3 TOTAL 29.5 32.3 40.8 50.9 Allocation of funds between the public and private sector varies according to the programme. For example, the whole of the fusion programme is within the public sector, whereas work on textile research is carried out wholly within the private sector. Some other programmes have attracted both private and public sector participation, but sufficient information is not available to give a breakdown.
House adjourned at two minutes past eleven o'clock.