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Scottish Ministers Encouraged As New Biotechnology Commission Gets Down To Business
27/09/2000
Scottish Minister Sarah Boyack has expressed her support for the consultation exercise launched today by the newly established Agriculture & Environment Biotechnology Commission on its draft work plan.
The Minister said:
"When we launched the AEBC in June this year we saw this Commission as a key member of the new advisory framework which will better enable the general public to engage in the policy-making process. The early signs are encouraging as the Commission settles in and the work plan launched today proposes a broad range of issues for investigation. The public should have the opportunity to influence this agenda and I welcome this consultation process as a positive move in the direction of greater openness. I am pleased that the Commission has chosen to launch this exercise in Scotland. Scottish Ministers will be watching the AEBC closely as it settles in and we are confident from what we have seen since June that Scottish interests will not be neglected by a body which will have a significant contribution to make in the months and years ahead."
BACKGROUND
- The Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission (AEBC) was launched on 5 June this year. Together with the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) it forms the Government's recently overhauled framework for strategic advice on biotechnology issues. A Government review in 1999 concluded that current regulatory and advisory arrangements worked well in granting approvals for individual processes or products, but that a new approach to the provision of strategic advice on biotechnology issues was needed, to:
- be more transparent and easier to understand;
- be more able to deal with fast moving biotechnology developments;
- take on board clearly the views of all potential stakeholders, and broad ethical and environmental considerations.
- AEBC's Chair is Professor Malcolm Grant, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge. The Deputy Chair is Ms Julie Hill, Programme Adviser to Green Alliance. A further 18 members come from a wide range of backgrounds including consumer and environmental issues, as well as farming, science, ethics and the biotechnology industry. They include a Scottish member, Professor Jeff Maxwell, who was appointed by the Scottish Executive. He serves in a personal capacity and not as a representative of the Scottish Executive. Together, the members ensure that all voices are heard: public acceptability, ethics, environmental and green issues as well as on science and industry.
- The AEBC advises the UK Government and the devolved administrations. Sarah Boyack is the lead Scottish Minister to whom the Commission reports. In addition to undertaken an agreed work plan, the Commission may be invited to address specific questions asked of it by the individual administrations. The Scottish Executive may, if it wishes, give a separate response to general advice from the Commission.
News Release: SE2565/2000
27 Sep 2000