HC Deb 14 November 1985 vol 86 cc266-7W
Mr. Michael McNair-Wilson

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what has been the annual expenditure on medical research, funded by the Government during the past 10 years.

Mr. Brooke

The information is as follows:

Financial Year £ million (cash)
1975–76 37.6
1976–77 42.2
1977–78 45.0
1978–79 51.3
1979–80 63.2
1980–81 80.3
1981–82 1,08.4
1982–83 1,14.4
1983–84 1,21.5
1984–85 1,25.8

The figures shown for the years 1975–76 to 1980–81 are on a different basis from those shown for later y ears. Before 1981–82 figures exclude the Department of Health and Social Security commissioning funds for biomedical research by the MRC because these figures cannot be identified separately. In 1981–82 these funds were transferred to the Medical Research Council and are included in that year and the subsequent years shown.

The figures include the Medical Research Council's grant-in-aid and expenditure on medical research (other than MRC commissions pre-1981–82) by the DHSS and the Scottish Home and Health Department.

Expenditure on medical research funded by the UGC block grant in universities and medical schools, a small amount of such research funded from the DHSS health and personal social services research programme and indirect research in a number of DHSS centrally funded bodies is excluded. Information about such expenditure is not available.