§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has received the annual report of the Agricultural and Food Research Council for 1988–89; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe annual report of the Agricultural and Food Research Council has been submitted to me under the requirements of the Science and Technology Act 1965, and a copy is being laid before the House today.
I was most interested to read about the council's achievements during what has clearly been another challenging year. I was particularly impressed by and interested in:
- (a) the initiation of a new programme of plant molecular biology to be undertaken in universities and Agricultural and Food Research Council institute-based research groups throughout the United Kingdom. This programme will help to maintain the United Kingdom lead in an area of work of great importance for United Kingdom science and industry;
- (b) the creation of a research unit at the university of Oxford on agriculture and the environment. This will bring a new focus to such questions as the enrichment of the agricultural environment, sensitive agricultural practices and the conservation of plants and animals;
- (c) work on animal health including the identification of the seal plague virus;
25 - (d) work on food safety: the improvement of techniques for the rapid and precise detection of bacteria; and the development of methods of modelling and thus predicting the likely growth of bacteria on foods;
- (e) the studies of the molecular genetics of the Streptomyces bacteria which could lead to the production of modern designer antibiotics; and
- (f) the implementation of new programmes in studentship and fellowship allocations which will help to train the high-quality manpower required to ensure the United Kingdom's progress in plant and animal biotechnology.
I congratulate the council on these and its many other achievements and look forward to reading about further progress in next year's report.