§ Mr. MadelTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about future United Kingdom membership of CERN.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerI have now considered the action taken by the CERN council in implementing the reforms recommended by the CERN review committee under the chairmanship of Professor Abragam and concluded that sufficient progress has been made for the United Kingdom to indicate that it will remain a member of the organisation.
There are, however, a number of outstanding matters stemming from the review committee report which the United Kingdom will be expecting to see pursued over the next year. Accordingly, at the CERN council meeting today, the United Kingdom delegate made a statement emphasising the United Kingdom's wish to see CERN's scientific excellence continued and indicating the areas where progress on reducing the cost burden on member states has still to be made. I have arranged for copies of the statement to be placed in the Library.
The Government's decision will be reflected in the forthcoming allocation of the science budget, which I shall make when I have considered the advice of the ABRC.