§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the allocation of the science budget. [10078]
§ Mr. LangI have discussed the allocations with the Director General of Research Councils and have decided that, subject to parliamentary approval of the Supply estimates in due course, the science budget of £1,312.390 million should be allocated as follows:
Science Budget Allocations and Planning Assumptions £ million Allocation Planning figures 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 BBSRC 176.31 176.89 179.98 ESRC 63.08 63.62 65.64 EPSRC 375.95 373.46 376.78 MRC 281.89 282.96 286.86 NERC 164.65 162.32 167.90 PPARC 191.68 191.73 194.90 International subscriptions reserve 15.04 18.00 18.00 CCLRC 1.45 1.45 1.45 Research Council Pensions Supplement 9.87 11.53 12.97 Royal Society 21.82 22.27 22.62 Royal Academy of Engineering 3.12 3.37 3.44 OST Initiatives 2.53 2.78 2.85 Foresight Challenge 5.00 10.00 13.00 High-performance computing — 10.00 — Total 1,312.39 1,330.39 1,346.39 These allocations will enable the research councils and other funded bodies to consolidate and develop the new initiatives announced in February 1994 to take forward the policies set out in the 1993 White Paper "Realising Our Potential: A Strategy for Science, Engineering and Technology". Further details are set out in the paper "Allocation of the Science Budget 1996–97", which I have placed in the Library of the House.