Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what consultations he undertook before deciding to change the funding arrangements for British Academy-sponsored institutions and societies; and if he will make a statement.

Funding arrangements for the British Academy-Sponsored Institutes and Societies (BASIS) programme have not been changed. The seven independent Schools and Institutes within the BASIS Programme collectively have an important role in advancing science diplomacy and promoting UK higher education in their regions, and we value the close connections with foreign government ministries, British diplomatic missions and the British Council that are fostered through the BASIS Programme.

The Science & Research budget allocation for the National Academies for 2016-17 to 2019-20 was published on 4 March. The allocation provided for real terms protection for the British Academy’s BASIS programme, enabling the Academy to continue to provide the BASIS Institutes with substantial block grant support throughout this period. Details of direct funding received by the BASIS Programme through its grant from the British Academy, as well as details of the cumulative payments made by the British Academy to individual schools and institutes within the programme, are published in the British Academy Annual Report, available at www.britac.ac.uk/about/annualrep/index.cfm.