Professor Backhouse's article in the HOPE 2002 Supplement does indicate  
that the unofficial RAE-economics panel view of HET/HE is not a  
favorable one.  However, in terms of an explicit statement, I do not  
believe that in the previous four RAE exercises that the topics/content  
of the submissions has been prescribed in this sort of detail.  It is  
this explicit institutional change that prompted my query.   
  
There are of course a number of issues that arise concerning the  
explicit change.  The one that may be of interest to many is the History  
of Economics Society position on the panel-placement of HET/HE in the  
2008 RAE.  That is on 15 July 2004 Dr. Diana Jones (Acting RAE Deputy  
Manager) sent a letter to the History of Economics Society asking it to  
nominate person(s) for the RAE panels and sub-panels--see  
http://www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2004/03/.  Whether the HES responded to the  
letter, what names(s) the HES may have submitted, and to which panels  
and/or sub-panels the name(s) were submitted may be of interest to  
members of HES.    
  
Fred Lee