Science and Innovation Campuses

Answer: I have made the position on the science budget very clear. We have more than doubled that budget in the past 10 years; it will have tripled by 2010-11, approaching £6 billion per annum. There is a situation with regard to the Science and Technology Facilities Council; that is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State asked Bill Wakeham to conduct a review of the health of physics as a discipline. I do not know what the hon. Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) does, but when we have a review, we wait for its findings and then consider what it says.

This is an answer to the Oral question asked on Thursday, 27 March 2008 by Adam Afriyie (Conservative).

Question: Despite the Minister's warm words, there is clearly a crisis with science funding overall. On the ““Today”” programme of 11 December, he was asked whether he would help with the £80 million science budget deficit. He replied that"““we will have to see what the review says.””" On three separate occasions during the interview, he led us to believe that the Wakeham review would look at science budgets. Yet in February we discovered that it will not look at science budgets at all. The question is: does the Minister intend to renege on his commitment to review the science budget? A simple yes or no will do.

Secondary information

Type: Oral answer to question
Reference: 474 c309
Session: 2007-08
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Education Innovation Higher education Research Science Daresbury Laboratory Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
Link: View this Oral answer to question on www.publications.parliament.uk