asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proportion of the £9 million allocated for the technology priority area, Electronic and Phonetics: novel technologies for low-cost high-efficiency electronics and lighting systems, will be available to fund solid-state lighting. [HL634]

The spring 2006 competition of the technology programme originally allocated £9 million for applications in electronics and photonics. The priority area attracted many viable applications and £13.26 million grant support is being offered to research and development projects in that area. Some £7.24 million of this sum has been offered to projects that directly relate to solid-state lighting.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Why they have declined to have a national solid-state lighting programme comparable with the programmes of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and the United States. [HL635]

The Government's technology programme provides support for a wider range of technologies including solid-state lighting, and in recent competitions more than £7.2 million has been offered to support projects in that area.

The Technology Strategy Board that oversees the technology programme has the remit to select the priorities areas for support, the budget allocation for each of the areas and strategy for its delivery.