§ Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what will be the future status of the laboratory of the Government chemist.
§ Mr. RidleyToday the laboratory of the Government chemist is being established as an executie agency of DTI. The freedom and flexibility that the laboratory is to gain will further improve its efficiency and help it to provide a better service to its customers. The LGC is the fourth agency to be created in the DTI under the next steps initiative.
The relationship between the LGC and the DTI will be governed by principles laid down in its policy and resources framework. Management of the agency will be the responsibility of the chief executive, Mr. Alex Williams, the Government chemist. The agency will operate within policies determined by DTI Ministers. It will recover its full economic cost from services rendered through arm's-length customer-contractor relationships with all its customers. From April 1990, the LGC will be exempted from gross cost control. These arrangements will ensure that there will be open competition for analytical services, that the size and shape of the laboratory will depend on the orders it can win from customers and that customers will achieve better value for money.
17WIn my foreword to the agency framework document, a copy of which has been placed in the library of the House, I undertake as part of the corporate planning process, to set targets that will require the laboratory to achieve demanding incremental improvements in overall efficiency and quality of service.
The main link between the LGC and the DTI will be a steering board chaired by Dr. R. Coleman, the chief engineer and scientist of the DTI. In addition to Mr. Williams, the chief executive, the board will include the following members drawn from the private sector:
Company Mr. H. B. Berridge Berridge Environmental Laboratories Ltd. Dr. L. B. Davies Lyndon Davies Associates Dr. D. R. Williams BOCM Silcock