§ Mr. TylerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will list the(a) date of appointment, (b) terms of 33W reference and (c) membership of the focus groups established by her Department to discuss genetic engineering. [22603]
§ Mr. BattleNo specific focus groups have been established by my Department to discuss genetic engineering. However, I have already announced, on 24 November, the intention to hold a public consultation exercise about advances in biosciences and their implications.
The goal is to engage members of the public in debate. An important pre-cursor to this is to involve interested parties already active in the debate. I shall be hosting a meeting early this year to discuss with groups active in both biosciences and science communication how we can best develop the public activity.