§ Mr. John Ellisasked the Secretary of State for Transport how much his Department has spent in each of the last five years and how much it is forecast to spend in the next five years on economic research, identifying separately the sums spent on the regional highway traffic model.
§ Mr. William RodgersExpenditure on research programmes commissioned by my Department into economic problems amounted in 1977–78 to about £250,000. This figure does not include the cost of economic analysis and appraisal under-taken by the professional staff of my Department as part of its continuing work. I regret that figures for earlier years could not be supplied without disproportionate effort. Work on the regional highway traffic model is now at the developmental stage, and it is not classified as economic research. The capital cost of the model, spread over four years, is expected to amount to some £6 million.