HL Deb 20 April 1989 vol 506 cc978-80WA
Lord Ezra

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What will be the future status or Warren Spring Laboratory.

Lord Young of Graffham

Today Warren Spring Laboratory is being established as an executive agency of DTI. The laboratory is the first research establishment anywhere in government to achieve agency status. This is a major landmark. The freedoms and flexibility which WSL is to gain as an agency will further improve its efficiency and help it to provide a better service to its customers. The laboratory is the third agency to be created in the Department of Trade and Industry as part of my drive to take forward the "Next Steps" initiatives as widely and rapidly as possible.

The relationship between WSL and the DTI will be governed in future by a framework document which lays down two key principles:

day-to-day management of the agency will be the responsibility of the chief executive, Dr. John Reay. The agency will operate within the policy framework determined by DTI Ministers;

arms' length customer/contractor relationships with all its customers, analogous to private sector practice. The new relationships will ensure that there will be open competition for research, and customers will be better able to ensure that value for money is being obtained.

In my foreword to the agency framework document, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House, I look forward to WSL moving to a net operating cost control system within a year, following the review with Treasury of the laboratory's performance measures to help demonstrate efficiency. In this way, the laboratory's business can be demand led, replacing the existing gross running cost control regime.

The main link between WSL and DTI following the change to agency status will be through a steering board chaired by the DTI's Chief Engineer and Scientist, Dr. Ron Coleman. In addition to Dr. Reay, WSL's chief executive, the board will include the following members drawn from the private sector:

Sir Geoffrey Allen and Mr. Derek Slater: Unilever Research and Engineering Research and Technical Director, APV Projects Ltd.

Dr. Peter Rodgers: Biological Products Business, ICI.

Dr. Reay has been appointed chief executive of WSL for a period of three years from April 1989.