To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the total identifiable expenditure on research by his Department in each year since 1979; what proportion was awarded on a customer-contractor basis; and what proportion of his total departmental budget was expended on research for each year.

Identifiable expenditure on research in the diplomatic and aid wings of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is shown in the tables. The diplomatic wing's research expenditure accounts for up to 0·5 per cent. of its departmental running costs. Comparable figures for years prior to 1984–85 are not available. A small additional amount of research was commissioned outside the FCO. For the ODA, research expenditure now normally accounts for over 2·5 per cent. of total departmental expenditure. It is now ODA's policy to commission research on a customer-contractor basis with specified aims and objectives, as exemplified by the new renewable natural resources research strategy. For neither wing is information available on the proportion of research undertaken on a customer-contractor basis.