HC Deb 18 December 1987 vol 124 cc764-5W
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will now set out the composition and terms of reference of the Co-ordinating Committee on Marine Science and Technology, announced in Cmnd. 9861.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

The new Co-ordinating Committee on Marine Science and Technology will include representatives of relevant Government Departments, research councils and independent members reflecting the broad range of activities the committee will address.

The chairman will be Sir John Mason, CB, Dsc, FRS.

Other members from outside Government will be:

  • Admiral Sir Lindsay Bryson, FRSE, FEng. — Chairman, Marine Technology Directorate Ltd.
  • Dr. D. L. Georgala, CBE — Industrial Consultant, Laboratory of the Government Chemist.
  • Mr. D. E. Lennard — Managing Director, Ocean Thermal Conversion Systems Ltd.
  • Prof. Tom Patten, CBE, FEng, FI Mech E, FRSE—Chairman, Seaboard Lloyd Ltd.
  • Prof. Ernest Naylor DSc., FIBiol — Lloyd Roberts Professor of Zoology, University College of North Wales, Bangor.
  • Sir David Smith, FRS — Vice Chancellor of Edinburgh University.

One further member, from an industrial background, is to be appointed later.

Departmental members will be drawn from the Department of Trade and Industry, Energy, Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland, Transport; and the Ministries of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, and of Defence.

The committee will have assessors from the Department of Education and Science, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Cabinet Office.

The committee's terms of reference will be: To co-ordinate Government-funded and related activities in marine science and technology, advising and reporting to the Government through the Secretary of State for Education and Science, and in particular to:

  1. i. develop a national strategic framework, having regard to available resources and taking full account of the responsibility of Departments, research councils and industry in developing their own strategies;
  2. ii. draw attention to areas, or potential areas, of duplication, overlap or omission;
  3. iii. identify and consider the relative priority of fields of major scientific, technological or economic promise;
  4. iv. promote the role of the United Kingdom in the European Community and other international collaboration; and
  5. v. monitor progress within the national strategic framework.

The Committee is expected to meet for the first time in January 1988.