§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement of the future of the royal observatories. [651]
§ Mr. Ian Taylor[holding answer 5 November 1996]: The Government accepted the recommendations in the report of the prior options review of the royal observatories which had been endorsed by the council of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. These were that the management of the overseas 592W telescopes and the provision of the instrumentation programme provided by the royal Greenwich observatory and the royal observatory Edinburgh should be subject to competitive tendering by all competent suppliers. PPARC is currently implementing the recommendations of the review with the intention of an invitation to tender being issued this month.