§ Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his Department's planned expenditure on research and development for 1987–88; and what are the main areas of research selected by his Department under the Rothschild principles of the customer-contractor relationship.
§ Mr. RidleyMy Department plans to spend £51.4 million on research and development for 1987–88. All the Department's research and development is selected in accordance with the customer-contractor principle, as defined by Lord Rothschild in his report to the Government in 1971, with the exception of the "discretionary" programme of the director of the Building Research Establishment.
The areas of research covered by the Department's research programme are; environmental protection, water, countryside, planning, local government, housing and building and construction.