HC Deb 03 July 1981 vol 7 cc517-8W
Mr. D. E. Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list in the Official Report how much money was spent during the years 1978, 1979 and 1980 on research into renewable energy resources in Wales, Scotland, England, the United Kingdom as a whole, Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Mr. John Moore

The figures for expenditure by my own Department by financial year are as follows:

1978/79 1979/80 1980/81
£000 £'000 £'000
Wales 54 42 226
Scotland 325 609 1,000
England 1,881 5,849 7,529
United Kingdom 2,273 6,520 8,783

I regret that the figures for total Government expenditure could not be obtained on a calendar year basis, broken down as requested, without disproportionate cost.

The International Energy Agency in its annual reviews of national programmes gives figures by calendar years for total Government expenditure in this area of research. Its figures—converted to sterling—for the countries requested are given below for 1978 and 1979. The 1980 figures have not yet been published.

1978 1979
£ million £ million
United Kingdom 5.4 9.0
Italy 3.5 6.4
Germany 15.6 21.9
Netherlands 3.5 4.7
Switzerland 2.1 4.1

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