§ Mr. Robert BanksTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the sections and organisations within his Department for which there are plans for relocation or amalgamation.
§ Mr. JackAs announced last year, the Department intends to relocate some 600 headquarters posts and its central science laboratory to the York area over the next three years. The former will include work on pesticides safety and plant health, statistical and financial services, and areas of personnel management and other common services.
In January 1993, ADAS announced plans to withdraw from 12 local offices between April and October 1993. At the same time, it announced plans to relocate and amalgamate a number of laboratories as part of an overall rationalisation programme. This programme is now being implemented.
My right hon. Friend the former Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food announced in March this year, Official Report, 31 March, columns 249–50, that it was intended to merge the food science laboratory, Norwich and the Torry research station, Aberdeen with the existing Central Science Laboratory Agency with effect from 1 April 1994. There are no plans to move the laboratories at Norwich and Aberdeen from their present locations.