To ask the Minister for the Arts what is the total number of subscriptions to scientific periodicals that has been suspended by the British Library; and if he will give a breakdown showing the number suspended and the amount of money saved thereby in each major subject area.

The British Library has suspended subscriptions to a total of 200 scientific periodicals. A breakdown by subject area and the savings expected are:

	Number	£
Agriculture	4	1,290
Biology	17	6,515
Biomedicine	9	3,628
Biochemistry/chemistry	49	20,017
Computing (including automation)	7	2,466
Ecology/environment	4	1,356
Electronics/communications	6	2,535
Engineering	19	8,612
Mathematics	28	11,821
Physics	37	16,295
Other (geology, metallurgy, mining, etc.)	20	7,425
	200	81,960

The library is arranging alternative access where possible to the scientific journals and hopes to reinstate them in 1992. Most of them will continue to be taken by the library's document supply centre in Yorkshire.