§ Lord Kingslandasked Her Majesty's Government:
When it will respond to the review of UK Microbial Culture Collections, commissioned as part of the government response to the report on Systematic Biology Research produced by the Select Committee on Science and Technology.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Fraser of Carmyllie)The Government's response,A New Strategy for the UK Microbial Culture Collections was published on Friday 19th July.
A Culture Collections Advisory Group managed by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, is to be set up to help implement the new strategy. The Office of Science and Technology will provide £1.34 million over three years to help co-ordinate the activities of the collections and to encourage the use of modern molecular technologies.
Copies of the response have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. It is also available on the World Wide Web at the OST Home Page.