s 4
(1) Where in the exercise of their functions the Corporation carry out any project in response to representations made DY. any Government department other than the Post Office that it is in the public interest that the project should be carried out, the Minister in charge of the department may with the consent of the Treasury make to the Corporation out of money provided by Parliament— (a) payments to meet all or any part of the expenditure (including overhead expenditure) incurred by the Corporation in carrying out the project and payments by way of fees to the Corporation for carrying out the project, or (b) payments in respect of any loss arising in the carrying out of the project. (2) Any Minister may with the consent of the Treasury undertake to make at a future time any payment which he has power to make under the foregoing subsection. (3) Except with the approval of the Minister of Technology, the Corporation shall not enter into arrangements with the Minister in charge of a Government department (other than the Minister of Technology) to carry out any project in the exercise of their functions under section 1 of the principal Act or section 2 of the Development of Inventions Act 1954, being arrangements under which the Minister in charge of the Government department concerned undertakes to make any payment to the Corporation of the kind described in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) of this section. (4) Where a Government department requests the Corporation to enter into arrangements for carrying out any project, being arrangements under which any such payment as aforesaid is to be made, then for the purposes of section 1(1)(a) of the principal Act (under which the Corporation’s functions include the development or exploitation of inventions where the public interest so requires, being inventions resulting from public research or appearing not to be developed or exploited or sufficiently developed or exploited) and section 2(2) or (3) of the said Act of 1954 (under which the Corporation may promote or assist research or the continuation of research where certain requirements are fulfilled) a representation made to the Corporation by the Government department— (a) that it is in the public interest that the project should be carried out, or (b) both that it is in the public interest that the project should be carried out and that the relevant invention is not being developed or exploited or sufficiently developed or exploited, or, as the case may be, that the requirements in the said section 2(2) or (3) are fulfilled as respects the relevant research, shall be conclusive, but that shall not of itself impose a duty on the Corporation to carry out the project. (5) Section 5 of the principal Act (which is superseded by this section) shall cease to have effect.