§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when appointments will be made to the posts of Astronomer Royal for Scotland or Director of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton[holding answer 4 May 1993]: Advice will be tendered in due course to Her Majesty the Queen on an appointment to the office of Astronomer Royal for Scotland. The Science and Engineering Research Council, for which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is responsible, recently made changes to the management structure of the astronomical observatories as a result of which the posts of director of the Royal observatory, Edinburgh and director of the Royal Greenwich observatory have been succeeded by an overall director of observatories. An appointment to this post was made on 15 March 1993.