National Engineering Laboratory

HC Deb 07 July 1992 vol 211 cc137-8W

Mr. Ingram

To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the future of the National Engineering Laboratory.

Mr. Leigh

The National Engineering Laboratory became an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry in October 1990 with the mission, published in its framework document at the time, of becoming commercially viable with a view to eventual privatisation. Good progress has been made towards that object. The agency's targets for 1991–92, its first year as an executive agency, were published on 16 October 1990 and all of them were achieved.