Dr. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the total identifiable expenditure on research by his Department in each year since 1979; what proportion was awarded on a customer-contractor basis; and what proportion of his total departmental budget was expended on research for each year.
§ Mrs. ChalkerIdentifiable expenditure on research in the diplomatic and aid wings of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is shown in the tables. The diplomatic wing's research expenditure accounts for up to 0.5 per cent. of its departmental running costs. Comparable figures for years prior to 1984–85 are not available. A small additional amount of research was commissioned outside the FCO. For the ODA, research expenditure now normally accounts for over 2.5 per cent. of total departmental expenditure. It is now ODA's policy to commission research on a customer-contractor basis with specified aims and objectives, as exemplified by the new renewable natural resources research strategy. For neither wing is information available on the proportion of research undertaken on a customer-contractor basis.
(I) Diplomatic wing: Expenditure on research 1984–85 to 1988–89 £ million 1984–85 1.8 1985–86 2.0 1986–87 2.1 1987–88 2.3 1988–89 2.5
(ii) Aid wing: Expenditure on research 1979–89 Year £'000 as percent of total ODA expenditure 1979 19,996 2.1 1980 22,001 2.3 1981 22,257 1.9 1982 23,042 2.1 1983 27,610 2.4 1984 26,057 2.0 1985 27,874 2.1 1986 31,143 2.5 1987 38,073 2.9 1988 49,482 3.0 11989 45,995 2.6 1 1989 figures are provisional.