§ 18. Dr. Brayasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much money has now been committed from the science budget for the research programme of the European Space Agency, and in which years; whether the total science budget has been increased to accommodate the additional expenditure; and which other areas of research have been cut.
§ Mr. BrookeAt the Ministerial Council meeting of the European Space Agency held in January in Rome, which was attended by my hon. Friend the Minister for Information Technology, it was agreed that the budget of the agency's science programme would rise steadily from its 1984 level of 127 million accounting units to 162 million accounting units (at constant prices) by 1989. In 1984–85 the sum paid to the agency from the science budget, through the Science and Engineering Research Council, is estimated at £11.96 million. The size of the United Kingdom's contributions to the agency's increased science programme in 1985–86 and later years, and how those sums will be found, have yet to be determined.