§ Mr. Neaveasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will make a statement on the future of the Radiobiological Unit of the Medical Research Council at Chilton.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsIn 1967 the Medical Research Council appointed a special Committee to review the overall position of radiobiological research and to advise on the future scale of support in this field. The report of this Committee was recently submitted to the Council, who have accepted its main recommendations.
In its survey of work on radiological protection and of fundamental studies on ionizing radiations the Committee expressed the view that in recent years research carried out by the Radiobiological Research Unit and at other centres in many parts of the world had advanced knowledge sufficiently for adequate standards for protection to be laid down and that a lesser priority could therefore now be given to this work. In the light of this advice the Council have decided that the size of their Radiobiological Research Unit should, during the next five years or so, be gradually reduced by approximately fifty per cent.