§ Mr. RobathanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps he has taken to maintain the knowledge and expertise in wastes management and recycling developed by Warren Spring Laboratory after the sale of its site in Stevenage.
§ Mr. Heseltine[pursuant to his reply, 27 May 1993, c. 692]: I am announcing today the formation of a new national environmental technology centre (NETC). This is to be created by bringing together at Culham and Harwell the country's two main centres of environmental research, those of my Department's Warren Spring Laboratory (WSL) and AEA Technology. Together they will form a single centre of excellence in environmental technology.
WSL and AEA Technology has each established national and international reputations in environmental science and consultancy, serving customers in Government, in the private sector, and overseas. They are already working together in certain environmental areas. The NETC will provide a more comprehensive service for all these customers, and better value for the taxpayer's money. It will combine the complementary strengths of WSL and AEA Technology in the environmental field. It will aim to provide the full range of services provided in the past, and will develop and extend them. The Government will remain an important customer, and will deal with the NETC on a fee-paying basis.
This decision follows advice from PA consulting group on options for the future of WSL. The proposed relocation of WSL from its existing site at Stevenage to a greenfield site at Welwyn Garden City will not now proceed.
WSL has now been an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry for four years. I have been impressed by its progress within this framework towards becoming a more customer-oriented and cost conscious body, and I am confident that this progress will continue following the merger with AEA Technology.
The NETC will negotiate with all WSL's customers with the aim of taking on to the fullest extent possible the whole of WSL's business. WSL staff required to work on the business to be transferred will be expected to transfer to the AEA with their work. I am eager to see the greatest possible number of such staff transfer. The Department will seek to redeploy other staff, though some redundancies are likely.
My hon. Friend the Minister for Energy announced on 1 April that consultants were being appointed to advise on the practicability of privatising the AEA. I will want to consider the prospects of privatising the NETC activities in the light of that study.