Written question asked by Brian Iddon (Labour) on Tuesday, 13 March 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 15 March 2007. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Friday, 23 March 2007 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Research Councils: Finance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the answer of 7 March 2007, Official Report, column 1995W, on research, what methodology was used to ensure that the change to the budgets of the research councils would have minimal impact on the research objective reflected in his Department's public service agreement objective.

Answer: This part of the overall calculation took account of assessments made by research councils about the impact on their planned activities.Budget 2007 announces an early CSR settlement for the DTI’s ringfenced science budget, alongside a settlement for DFES. Together, these will ensure that investment in the public science base will rise by an annual average rate of 2.5 per cent. in real terms over the CSR period. The Department of Trade and Industry’s science budget will increase from £3.4 billion this year (2007-08) to £3.9 billion by 2010-11. These early settlements provide long term certainty for the research community, and meet the commitments set out in the 10 year investment framework.In the context of a tight spending review period, this represents a very good settlement for science.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 127943; 458 c1160W
Session: 2006-07
Related items: Research
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Written questions
House of Commons; Research
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Finance Research councils
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk