Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff secondments (a) to and (b) from (i) universities, (ii) research institutes and (iii) research centres the Met Office has in place; and how many such secondments took place in each year since 2010.

The Met Office collaborates with a number of universities and research organisations in the UK and overseas to advance the science and skills in meteorology, climate science and related subjects. This involves the placement of scientists between the Met Office and these bodies. Visits can be for short or longer periods of time, but are not generally recorded as formal secondments. During 2014-15, 149 scientists were recorded as visiting the Met Office for collaborative purposes. Extensive collaboration also takes place in the writing of scientific papers.

Met Office records of current and previous formal secondments to universities and research organisations are shown in the table below. It has no record of inward secondments from these organisations in the last 5 years.