Research and Development: Central Government Spending (Hansard, 2 February 2004)

§ The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, dated 2 February 2004.

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on central government spending on research and development per head of population in each standard region and nation of the UK. (HL814)

The most recent information on research and development (R&D) government expenditure available is for 2001–02. The estimate for total net government R&D expenditure which is either performed or funded by government is £7,167 million, of which £684 million is spent abroad. Estimates are not available on a regional basis.

Estimates of the amount of R&D performed by government departments themselves are available by Government Office Region for 2001. This information is taken from the DTI publication "Science, Engineering and Technology Statistics" and is shown in the attached table.

Expenditure on research and development performed within Government Establishments¹ in 2001. by nation and English Government Office Region.
	£ million	£ per head²
England	1,537	31.1
North East	4	1.6
North West and Merseyside	66	9.8
Yorkshire and the Humber	50	10.11
East Midlands	68	16.2
West Midlands	65	12.3
Eastern	277	51.2
London	238	32.6
South East	515	64.2
SouthWest	254	51.4
Wales	49	17.0
Scotland	226	44.7
Northern Ireland	16	9.6
United Kingdom	1,829	31.0
¹ Figures include estimates for local authorities, and those areas of central government for which data are not available from the Government Survey.
² Calculated using ONS estimates of the mid-2001 usually resident population (all ages)