§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether, in furtherance of his previous Written reply, he will finance investigations into the economics of exploiting energy sources by universities and polytechnics; and, in this connection, if he will ask the University College of London, Professor David Henderson, the Open University, Dr. Peter Chapman, and the South Bank Polytechnic, London, Mr. Colin Sweet, to make these further studies.
§ Dr. John CunninghamA great deal of research on the economics of energy sources is already taking place within Government Departments and laboratories, in the energy industries and in the universities and polytechnics. Much of the university and polytechnic research is462W financed directly from Government funds or by the Research Councils, and both the Science and Social Science Research Councils have made special arangements for the encouragement, co-ordination and financing of energy research. The studies proposed by my hon. Friend are extremely wide-ranging and would be likely to duplicate research already in progress elsewhere. It would, therefore, be inappropriate for the Government to commission a special study of the kind proposed or to identify particular individual research workers who already have access to the existing machinery.