14. To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the effect of the recently announced change in research councils' budgets on the work of individual research councils. (128962)

There has been no change to the annual budgets of research councils. What my hon. Friend announced on 20 February 2007 were reductions to the stock of accumulated end of year flexibility (EYF).

The research councils are now considering the implications for their planned activities, and are making individual announcements as they make decisions. Four councils have so far made announcements—the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. The others will follow suit over the course of the rest of March and April 2007.