§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what savings are anticipated from the proposed closure of the Agricultural and Food Research Council's Letcombe laboratory, Wantage.
§ Mr. BrookeThe council's corporate plan indicates that work on arable crop production and related soils research will be reviewed to achieve annual savings of about £1 million by 1986–87. The Letcombe laboratory's programme and related work at the Rothamsted experimental station will be reviewed and the work to be continued will be consolidated at Rothamsted. The Letcombe laboratory will be relinquished. As however this review of this area of the council's work will also encompass parts of other institutes, it is not possible to identify, within the estimated savings figure just given, precisely how much is attributable to the proposed closure of the Letcombe laboratory.