Agricultural and Food Research Council

HC Deb 04 December 1990 vol 182 c67W

Mr. Ron Davies

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the loss of 380 jobs at the Agricultural and Food Research Council.

Mr. Alan Howarth

I have been asked to reply.

The AFRC has announced that an estimated 380 posts will be lost in 1990–91 as a result of a combination of factors, including reductions in commissioned work as a consequence of the Government's "near-market" policy, an anticipated reduction in contracts work from the private sector, and the restructuring of AFRC institutes.

I am confident that the AFRC, which is an independent, chartered body, will continue to make every effort to hold redundancies to a minimum by deploying staff threatened with redundancy to other posts, with retraining as required.