HC Deb 21 March 1984 vol 56 cc501-2W
Sir Peter Mills

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when the Government will respond to the report of the Agriculture Committee in Session 1982–83 on the organisation and financing of agricultural research and development; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Jopling

I am today sending to the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee a detailed response by the Government to the Committee's report, made in the 1982–83 Session, on the organisation and financing of agricultural research and development. I would like to record the Government's thanks to the Committee and to the many individuals and organisations which gave evidence to it. I also thank the consultative board of the joint consultative organisation, which advises the agricultural departments in Great Britain and the Agricultural and Food Research Council on research priorites and facilities, for the views which it provided to the Agricultural Committee and to which the Committee made special reference. The Government very much appreciate the time and deep interest which the board's members have given to their responsibility.

The Government agree that the present arrangements for funding — through the Secretary of State for Education and Science in respect of the more basic research, through the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for work of more immediate importance to the industries, and through the Secretary of State for Scotland for the basic and applied research of the Scottish agricultural research institutes and the development work of the Scottish agricultural colleges — should be maintained. The Government also believe that the funds spent by my Ministry on work done by the AFRC should continue to be allocated according to the customer-contractor principle. A new executive body to direct and carry out research and development for the whole of the United Kingdom, such as the Committee recommended, would have undermined these basic arrangements. The Secretary of State for Scotland would have lost his direct responsibility for R & D and the Scottish arrangements, which the Committee commended, would have been dismembered. The AFRC as we know it would have been abolished and basic agricultural and food research would have had no place in the research council system.

Thus, while the Government do not regard a wholesale reorganisation of the present arrangements as necessary or desirable, they do believe that these arrangements can be simplified and made to achieve a more strategic and coordinated approach to agricultural and food R & D. They therefore propose to wind up the existing JCO board and the sponsors group and establish a new priorities board which will advise the four agriculture departments and the AFRC on research and development priorities and on the allocation of their research budgets. The board will be small with an independent chairman and a majority of independent members representing customer and scientific interest. Although advisory, the Government expect that its advice will normally be accepted. I am pleased to announce that Mr. Kenneth Durham, chairman of Unilever, has agreed to serve as chairman.

In order further to strengthen the scientific advice available to the Ministry, I have decided that Professor Bell, recently appointed director-general of the Agricultural Development and Advisory. Service at deputy secretary level, should also become my chief scientific adviser. He will; of course, be a member of the board.

The Ministry's arrangements for commissioning work with the AFRC have also been streamlined. In future, each Ministry commission with the AFRC will comprise a programme of work in a specific area, which the council will take into its forward planning and co-ordinate with the work financed by the science budget. On the detailed progress of research, Ministry scientists will deal directly with the scientists concerned at the council's institutes instead of going through AFRC headquarters. Changes in the finance allocated to programmes will however still be discussed with the AFRC centrally. The Government welcome the fact that the AFRC has now produced its first corporate plan. It will greatly help the priorities board in its task of advising the AFRC, the Ministry and DAFS on the compatibility and balance of their plans for research expenditure.

These changes will, I believe, promote the considerable role that agriculture and food research has in the success of the industries concerned and their important contribution to the national wealth.