§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what funds were allocated from his Department for directly commissioned research elevant to mental114W handicap for each of the past five years; and whether he intends those funds to be increased over the next five to 10 years.
§ Mr. GristThe principal research element of the all-Wales mental handicap strategy is the work of the mental handicap applied research unit, based at the university of Wales college of medicine, Cardiff and of the centre for social policy research and developmemt, based at the university college of north Wales, Bangor. These bodies have been supported over the period in question from the funds available to Wales from the Department of Health and Social Security's research and development budget, which has provided approximately £1,008,900 for their work over the last five years. Additional funding provided for research work directly by the Welsh Office over this period has been as follows: 1986–87—£10,600; 1987–88—£20,084; 1988–89—£1,815.
It is intended that provision for the two mental handicap research teams should continue so as to enable them to continue to assist in the development of the strategy. Allocation of specific funding for individual projects would be considered if it could be shown that research proposals of sufficient quality and relevance to the development of the strategy were required outside the work of the research teams.