§ Sir Anthony Royleasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has any change to propose in the management of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerYes. The present arrangements, under which the Royal Botanic Gardens are run as part of my Department, are not ideally suited to the management of an institution which combines the functions of curation, research, advice and instruction and public amenity. A board of trustees appointed for the purpose could in my view be better placed to give guidance to the director on these diverse and important activities. I am accordingly instructing my officials to institute consultations with representatives of the staff concerned and with interested organisations, with a view to introducing legislation at an early date to transfer management of the gardens to trustees.