§ Dr. GibsonTo ask the Prime Minister what response he has made to the letter sent to him by 114 United Kingdom scientists relating to GM trials. [137703]
§ The Prime MinisterI strongly believe that science and technology are vital to our country's future prosperity. As a government, we need to ensure that the UK continues to be one of the top countries in the world for scientific research.
14WI read the letter from Professor Burke and others with interest. In light of this, I have responded to the letter re-iterating that this government's approach is to make decisions on GM crops on the basis of sound science. The reason why we have not yet made a formal response to the results of the farm-scale evaluations is that we are waiting to hear the assessment of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, which we expect to receive around the end of this year.