Observatories (Hansard, 23 July 1997)

§ Mr. Battle

[holding answer 10 July 1997]: The Royal Greenwich observatory and the royal observatory, Edinburgh became establishments of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council on 1 April 1994. At that time, the two observatories and the island sites operated as an integrated organisational entity under the control of a single director. Following the establishment of PPARC, the organisation was split into four independent establishments—RGO, ROE, joint astronomy centre, Hawaii, and Isaac Newton Group, La Palma, Canary Islands—each with a separate budget holder. The basis of funding was also changed in 1995–96 to one in which a more arm's-length customer-supplier relationship exists between the island directors and the Gemini Telescopes UK project manager as procurers of telescope instrumentation, and the UK directors of the UK observatories as suppliers.

Island directors and the Gemini Telescopes UK project manager each now receive separate allocations of funds reflecting their responsibility for procurement of instrumentation and telescope construction. Smaller sums are allocated to UK directors to finance core programmes, infrastructure and running costs. The UK directors are then expected to compete to win the available work from the island sites and any similar work that might become available from other sources. Similarly, the island directors and the Gemini project manager are expected to seek out the most cost-effective suppliers, but with the proviso that, where short-term changes to work load within the UK establishments would give rise to significant restructuring costs, restrictions will apply.

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The allocations to UK establishments for each year are as follows:

Table 1: Formal allocations
£000
	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98
ROE	¹4,377	814	1,211	²1,044
RGO	¹4,537	828	1,188	²603
¹ Estimated apportionment of the 1994–95 outturn.
² Provisional allocations.

Table 2: Total expenditure
£000
	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97
ROE	¹4,377	²3,766	²3,778
RGO	¹4,537	²4,284	²6,740
¹ Estimated apportionment of the 1994–95 outturn.
² Includes formal allocations.

Table 1 clearly demonstrates the substantial fall in baseline funding to UK directors at the time of the introduction of the new structure. Table 2 reflects the additional funding from work won from the customers of each observatory.