HC Deb 15 April 1985 vol 77 c6W
Mr. Greenway

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he will take steps to collect information centrally from the individual universities and other institutes of higher education regarding the number of staff engaged in research full-time who hold (a) tenured posts and (b) untenured posts; and, in the case of those who hold untenured posts, how many are excluded by their conditions of employment from their right to redundancy pay, or to challenge unfair dismissal;

(2) if he will take steps to collect information centrally as to (a) how many permanent posts are available in medical schools for non-medically qualified researchers, (b) how many such researchers are employed on a short-time contract basis and (c) how many medical schools in the United Kingdom include in their conditions of employment for such researchers the obligatory waiving of statutory rights to redundancy, unfair dismissal, and so on;

(3) if he will take steps to obtain central records relating to the number of contract research staff currently supported by short-term grants in universities, medical schools and other institutes of higher education who are under 30 years, between 30 and 35 years, or over 35 years; what proportion of these is women; how many of these are on (i) five-year contracts (ii) three years or less; how these figures compare with (a) 10 years ago and (b) five years ago; what proportion of these are supported by the Research Council as compared with charitable sources; and what is the breakdown for the individual research councils.

Mr. Brooke

No.