HC Deb 23 January 1984 vol 52 cc410-1W
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what response he has made to the representations of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants that the cost of redundancies arising over the next few years in the Agricultural and Food Research Council will be larger than the savings achieved as a result of the redundancies; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Brooke

My right hon. Friend has not received representations from the Institution of Professional Civil Servants making this particular point. It is likely that, as lump sum payments will be made to staff in the year that they are made redundant, the cost of redundancies in the financial years 1984–86 will exceed the savings achieved in those years by programme reductions. In the medium to longer term, however, the annual savings on recurrent expenditure arising from the restructuring measures will considerably exceed the annual compensation payments to redundant staff. These savings will enable the Council to live within its reduced budget while allowing flexibility to fund new scientific initiatives.

Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his policy towards cuts in research embodied in the Agricultural and Food Research Council's five-year corporate plan.

Mr. Brooke

I welcome the Agricultural and Food Research Council's first corporate plan as a constructive response by the council to the need to contain its expenditure within planned levels while providing it with flexibility to enable resources to be quickly redeployed into promising new areas of science.

Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of the compensation to be paid to the 600 scientific research workers in specialised areas of work, due to be declared redundant under the Agricultural and Food Research Council's five-year corporate plan.

Mr. Brooke

The corporate plan refers to the loss of about 300 posts through natural wastage, and to the possible loss of a further 500 posts by 1986–87. It is not possible at this stage to estimate accurately the cost of compensation payments. However, I understand that, if 500 scientific and non-scientific posts have to be lost other than through natural wastage, the cost of such payments might be of the order of £10 million over five years.

Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) on what criteria he is reducing by £1 million per year in real terms, cash given to the Agricultural and Food Research Council for work related to crops, plants, and plant diseases, soil and cultivation;—

(2) why he envisages spending £1.4 million a year less on crop protection research;

(3) why he envisages cutting £2.3 million a year on animal nutrition research and fruit research.

Mr. Brooke

The grant-in-aid which the Agricultural and Food Research Council receives from the Department is not earmarked for any particular scientific purposes within the field of the council's activities. The allocation of the available funds between competing research priorities is a matter for the council. The council's corporate plan, published late last year, deals in considerable detail with work in progress, new scientific opportunities and priorities.