To ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps he is taking to draw up a concordat of co-operation between his Department and the Science and Engineering Research Council.

[holding answer 16 June 1993]: As the recent White Paper "Realising Our Potential: A Strategy for Science, Engineering and Technology" makes clear, a new system of research councils will come into effect on 1 April 1994. The Government have proposed that each of these new research councils should work with each of the Government Departments in which they have a significant policy connection to draw up and publish concordats. In the case of the Department of Trade and Industry, work to conclude concordats with the existing research councils has been under-way for a number of months.