§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been their annual expenditure on polar research over the last 10 years; and what proportion of that has been (a) Antarctic; (b) Arctic; and (c) common to both.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Education (Baroness Blatch)Most research specific to the polar regions is undertaken by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The council's expenditure in the Arctic and Antarctic, including capital costs, over that last 10 years is shown in the table below. It would be impossible to identify total expenditure on the elements of research common to both regions to any degree of accuracy.
70WAWhilst other departments and publicly funded agencies (e. g., the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Science and Engineering Research Council, and the Economic and Social Research Council) undertake or support polar research, much of this overlaps with research carried out in other scientific and geographical areas, and even partial disaggregation could only be achieved at disproportionate cost. I shall, however, write to the noble Lord outlining their interests and activities, with expenditure details where available.
NERC expenditure on Polar research: 1982–83 to 1991–92 Arctic£000s Antarctic£000s 1982–83 774.4 7,807.3 1983–84 817.4 10,047.5 1984–85 850.8 12,670.6 1985–86 880.5 12,545.0 1986–87 1,150.1 12,655.7 1987–88 1,112.6 18,566.1 1988–89 958.1 28,413.3 1989–90 971.8 34,321.7 1990–91 1,653.8 48,648.7 1991–92 1,903.4 27,764.7