§ Mr. Orme asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, in view of the hardships caused to a number of universities by the recent action of the University Grants Committee in clawing back £8 million from their 1980–81 recurrent grants because of a clerical error, he will seek to alleviate that hardship.
§ Mr. Waldegrave:No. The University Grants Committee regrets the mistake which led to overpayment to some universities of grant instalments for the last four months of the academic year 1980–81. These universities cannot be allowed to keep the windfall gains which resulted, but recovery of the overpayment is being spread over the period up to 31 March 1982. Where universities were underpaid the deficiencies were made good in August.