Mr. R. C. Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the Report of the Working Party on the Practice of Genetic Manipulation will be published; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MulleyThe report of the Working Party is being printed and will be published shortly. I am grateful to the Chairman, Sir Robert Williams, and the members for their urgent work on this important topic.
The Working Party was set up last August, in the light of the Ashby Report on the potential benefits and hazards associated with techniques for the experimental manipulation of the genetic composition of micro-organisms—Cmnd. 5880—to draw up a central code of practice for laboratories working in this field and to consider the best means of providing advice and control. Its report includes a draft code defining various levels of safety precautions related to degrees of potential hazard; it sets out principles for categorising experiments according to the level of safety precautions required; and it recommends that laboratories should undertake experiments only with the knowledge and agreement of a central advisory group set up to assess the hazards involved and advise on the appropriate categorisation. The Working Party concludes that a system on these 1014W lines, instituted initially on a voluntary basis, would provide immediate and effective control while permitting valuable work to proceed safely, and would enable the Government to consider the introduction of specific statutory control later in the light of experience; but at the same time it recommends that regulations should be made under the Health and Safety at Work Act, requiring laboratories to notify the central advisory group before beginning any relevant work.
The Government accept the general principles of the report. They are confident that scientists in the United Kingdom will welcome the opportunity to co-operate in a scheme on the lines recommended, which would be voluntary in the first instance. I shall accordingly appoint members of the central advisory group as quickly as possible, and make immediate arrangements for it to get to work. The Health and Safety Commission will at an early date circulate for comment by all those concerned proposals for regulations requiring notification of proposed experiments.