HC Deb 18 June 1991 vol 193 c120W
Mr. Butler

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what evaluation of the scientific quality of research at the nuclear structure facility at Daresbury was undertaken by the Science and Engineering Research Council prior to its decision to close the facility.

Mr. Alan Howarth

As part of its annual planning process, the Science and Engineering Research Council evaluates the relative priority of all its research programmes taking scientific quality into account. Following such an exercise earlier this year, the SERC decided that running the nuclear structure facility at Daresbury laboratory beyond 1992 was of lower priority than other parts of its programme.