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