§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, in each of the last five years, how much the Medical Research Council spent on supporting research into (a) deafness and (b) tinnitus; in each year, how many projects were supported; and how many of them were new ones in that year.
§ Mr. William SheltonThe Medical Research Council's support for all projects involving hearing research and tinnitus over the three financial years 1979–80 to 1981–82 — the latest year for which figures are available—is as follows. It is not possible to produce comparable figures for 1977–78 and 1978–79.
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MRC's Support of Hearing Research Financial Year Expenditure £000s Number of projects current in each year (number of new projects in parentheses) Hearing* 1979–80 1,373 64 (8) 1980–81 1,736 68 (14) 1981–82 2,284 76 (23) * The figures for hearing research include both basic and applied research, and the total cost of each project has been included. The figures in the above table include research directly relevant to Tinnitus as follows:
MRC's Support of Hearing Research Financial Year Expenditure £000s Number of projects current in each year (number of new projects in parentheses) 1979–80 61 7 (nil) 1980–81 96 6 (3) 1981–82 120 12 (4)
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proportion of the money spent by the Medical Research Council in supporting research goes on work related to (a) deafness, (b) blindness, (c) physical disability and (d) mental disability.
§ Mr. William SheltonIn 1981–82 the total cost of research projects chiefly devoted to hearing represented
All Pupils Taking meals Pupils Taking Free Meals Number Percentage of Pupils in attendance Number Percentage of Pupils in attendance 1974 5,439,800 70.2 694,107 9.0 1975 5,551,722 70.3 727,804 9.2 1976 5,502,826 69.4 778,720 9.8 1977 4,855,422 61.6 926,909 11.8 1978 5,096,433 65.9 1,074,066 13.9 1979 4,854,938 64.1 898,768 11.9 1980 3,534,858 48.2 724,257 9.9 1981 3,515,316 49.0 856,282 11.9 1982 3,428,380 49.4 964,130 13.9 * The figures are from the school meals census which has been taken in October of each year. I shall write to the hon. Member when estimates of the number of pupils entitled to free meals are available.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list for each year since 1974, the
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Revenue (income) £ milliom 1981–82 Subsidy on paid on meals £ million 1981–82 Free pupil meals £ million 1981–82 Financial year outturn prices Index outturn prices Index outturn prices Index 1974–75 265.7 100.0 491.2 100.0 112.8 100.0 1975–76 283.2 106.6 513.0 104.4 119.0 105.5 1976–77 218.3 82.2 496.2 101.0 115.8 102.7 1977–78 239.3 90.1 390.2 79.4 147.8 131.0 1978–79 268.1 100.9 364.6 74.2 167.4 148.4 1979–80 257.8 97.0 357.2 72.7 144.8 128.4 1980–81 237.5 89.4 292.0 59.4 132.9 117.8 1981–82 214.0 80.5 245.0 49.9 145.0 128.5 1.6 per cent. of the Medical Research Council's expenditure on the support of research, projects chiefly devoted to vision represented 1.3 per cent. and those to mental handicap/psychiatric disorders 4.2 per cent. Though it is not possible with the present classification system to give a comparable figure for physical disabilities, the total cost of projects clearly relevant to physical disability, but also relevant to other headings, amounted to 1.4 per cent. of the council's budget. Accidents and injuries, and certain forms of many diseases, for example, arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, kidney disease and heart disease can cause physical disabilities, but in arriving at the above figure the cost of research in such areas has only been taken into account where it is clearly relevant to physical disability.