§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what reply he has sent to Sir James Gowans, of the Medical Research Council, on the shortage of funds in molecular biology and neurobiology.
§ Mr. BrookeIn my right hon. Friend's reply of 10 January, at column526, to my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry), he announced that, in the light of advice from the Advisory Board for the Research Councils, the Medical Research Council is to receive a grant-in-aid of £122.3 million from the science budget in 1985–86. This sum represents an increase of £2.1 million in the council's grant-in-aid over the previously published plans for that year. We believe that the Medical Research Council made its comments, about the difficulty of fully supporting the areas of science described, before it had been informed about the increased money. It will be for the council to decide how to apportion its grant-in-aid between the various areas of science it supports.