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Science Budget

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government's argument that this decision is part of the comprehensive spending review negotiations is different in this case? It is not like allocations to the Higher Education Funding Council, for example, where the Government rightly and transparently say that they want to direct Government priorities and to see that what the council proposes to spend in the settlement is what the Government want it to do. In this case, the Government claim, rightly or wrongly—rightly, in my view—that they do not have any influence on particular scientific programmes. Therefore that process of negotiation is especially different in Haldane.