§ Mr. PorterTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if the Government's chief scientific adviser has reviewed the Inter-agency Committee on Global Environmental Change; and if he will make a statement. [20307]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorThe review concluded that the Inter-agency Committee on Global Environmental Change had been an effective mechanism in the past and that it should continue to provide UK agencies funding global environmental change research with a senior-level forum for discussion of relevant science and policy developments.
I am pleased to announce that Sir Richard Southwood has been appointed chairman for the next three years.
A broader membership structure has been introduced. For the first time this has directly involved my Department's Environment Directorate, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Scottish Office, and the Overseas Development Administration.
I have arranged for copies of a note of the conclusions from the review to be placed in the Library of the House.