§ Mr. Robert Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the reason for the payment under Class X Vote 17 Sub-Head A5 of £9,065,000 to the Institut Laue-Langevin.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe payment is made in accordance with international agreements signed in 1974 between the British, French and Federal German Governments and between their respective scientific agencies—the Science Research Council in the case of the United Kingdom—to cover the operation of a neutron beam reactor at the Institut Laue-Langevin, situated at Grenoble, France. The text of the inter-governmental agreement was published in 1975 as Cmnd. 5941., a copy of which is available in the Library.
The payment provides scientists based in the United Kingdom with access to facilities for neutron scattering and for similar experiments which they would not otherwise have. Such experiments are of major importance in the fields of chemistry, physics, biology and polymer science.