§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what allowance he has made for the effect of Swiss and other overseas inflation on(a) the CERN budget and (b) the physics element of the United Kingdom science budget in the financial year 1990–91.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe United Kingdom's annual contribution to the CERN budget, and other expenditure on research in the field of physics, is met from grant in aid to the Science and Engineering Research Council allocated annually in the light of the Government's overall decisions on public expenditure and following advice from the Advisory Board for the Research Councils. It is for the SERC to determine the distribution of the resources it receives, including those to be directed to international subscriptions for CERN and other organisations. For this purpose, the council will make its own assumptions concerning rates of inflation in the United Kingdom and other relevant countries. The level of grant in aid announced for the financial year 1990–91 was £440.8 million, representing an increase of £34.6 million—8.5 per cent.—over the previous year.