§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his Department's policy on the funding of taxonomic research in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe Department funds research through its grants from the science budget to the research614W councils and through the higher education funding councils which provide block grants to higher education institutions.
In deciding the overall level of funding to be made avaialble, and the allocation of the science budget to individual research councils, the Government take account of advice from the funding councils and from the Advisory Board for the Research Councils. It is then for individual research councils and higher education institutions to decide how to deploy the resources made available to them, including the level of funding for taxonomic research.