HC Deb 15 January 1998 vol 304 cc267-8W
Mr. Roy

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the allocation of the science budget. [23909]

Mr. Battle

I 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 £1,338.326 million should be allocated as follows:

Science Budget allocations
£ million
Allocation 1997–98 Allocation 1998–99
BBSRC 183.300 185.739
ESRC 64.896 65.990
EPSRC 386.373 382.982
MRC 289.070 290.208
NERC 165.116 171.771
PPARC 191.850 191.268
International Subscription Reserve 8.800 3.028
CCLRC 1.450 1.462
Pensions 11.530 12.298
Royal Society 22.271 22.621
Royal Academy 3.370 3.436
OST Initiatives 2.302 2.376
Joint Research Equipment Initiative — 4.147
LINK/Foresight — 1.000
Total 1,330.327 1,338.326

An additional £4.2 million has been made available for the Joint Research Equipment Initiative to increase the £5.4 million already set aside by the Research Councils for the third round of the initiative.