§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action his Department is taking to enable television viewers in the Verwood area of Dorset to obtain access to the full range of digital terrestrial television. [158472]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 23 April 2001]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting on 23 April 2001, Official Report, columns 16–17W.
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§ Mr. Alan JohnsonProject details are listed as follows. All experiments using fish must satisfy the regulations of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Those involving genetic modification are subject to the regulations governing releases to the environment. Marketing of genetically modified fish would also require further approvals, principally as a novel food.
In 1991–92, the then Agriculture and Food Research Council (AFRC) funded three grants to work on transgenic fish. These were on carp, salmon, trout and goldfish (a form of carp). These grants finished in 1995. One was to determine how to undertake transgenesis in fish because techniques for other species did not work well, one was to manipulate the onset of sexual maturity and the third to change the rate of growth of the fish.
In addition, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Medical Research Council are supporting a good deal of research using the fish genome as a model. However, this research is aimed at understanding genetic function more generally at a fundamental level, not at improved varieties of fish.
The research councils are also supporting a range of wider research on fish genetics and aquaculture, but I understand this does not involve genetic modification (GM). I would be happy to provide my hon. Friend with the details if he so wishes.