Examination of Witnesses (Questions 300-306)
LORD WHITTY,
MR TOM
EDDY AND
MR PETER
MURIEL
TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER 2002
300. February 14 is the Friday of the half-term
holiday, which is entirely appropriate, of course, to Horticulture
Research International.
(Lord Whitty) It is certainly my intention to make
a decision before then.
301. Hopefully quite a way before then, if possible.
(Lord Whitty) Yes.
Mr Jack
302. Minister, before I ask you a question I
would like to record for the record that the company of which
I am Chairman, the Hartington Group, was invited some time ago
to participate in bidding on matters referring to the redevelopment
of the East Malling site, it was not successful and no longer
has any relationship with that. I thought you ought to be aware
of that before I asked my question. This Committee has produced
two reports into HRI and having now read the quinquennial review,
which I thought was an excellent document, it did occur to me
why only now are DEFRA willing to make decisions about the future
of HRI when it was blindingly obvious from the evidence that we
received on two occasions and published that there was then an
urgency about sorting out matters which the quinquennial review
has brought into very sharp and clear focus? Can I seek your assurance
that when you do respond to it that all of those outstanding issues
in terms of the size, scope, scale, terms of employment of people
who work for HRI, will once and for all be sorted out to take
away much of the uncertainty that has clouded this troubled organisation
for a long time.
(Lord Whitty) I think it is true that some of the
problems were evident at earlier stages, as your Committee and
others have identified. We did try and run with a structure and
a funding management system which in the end did not prove to
be robust enough. We are now in a position where we do have to
take some fundamental decisions and we have to take them pretty
fast, as I have said. Not all of the issues on which you have
touched will be entirely resolved by my announcement but the future
structure and status of the various parts of HRI will be clear
at that point. Obviously some will require further negotiations,
particularly staff terms and conditions and so on, as will discussions
with Warwick University and others.
303. Given that your department has now got
its own three year financial settlement in place, will one of
those key issues that you will be able to address be a clear statement
on what DEFRA's funding for its research purchases, if you like,
from HRI is going to be over the next three years to give them
certainty at least in one source of their income stream?
(Lord Whitty) We will go as far as we can in that
direction. Although we have a three year allocation we do not
have the finalised next year's budgets yet. We are required by
the Treasury to—
Chairman
304. I have indeed tabled a question asking
for the budget in relation to the PSA objectives.
(Lord Whitty) I think I am aware of that question.
In so far as we can answer it, that will relate to the current
year and the first years of the new budget because we are required
by the Treasury, as a result of the settlement, to engage in what
they call a base line review in the course of the next few months
which may alter the balance of expenditure. As far as horticultural
research is concerned, or horticulture research earmarked for
HRI, we will go as far as we can in making the commitment which
the quinquennial review requests of us.
Mr Jack
305. Do you tacitly accept in the statement
that you have made that that degree of financial certainty is
vital if the restructuring plans which may result from your response
to the quinquennial review are, if you like, to provide a lasting
basis to sort out HRI's problems, because there are some very
big issues such as the number of sites, the number of people they
employ, as the Chairman indicated the commercial and intellectual
relationships they have, their commercial activity, all of that
requires some underpinning?
(Lord Whitty) Yes, and I accept that changes in the
total amount of DEFRA support have contributed to the uncertainty
and the instability of HRI. The absolute commitment would need
to be at a level which would be the minimum commitment and, therefore,
at a stroke you are not resolving their future financial position,
they have also got to operate on competition and in the market.
Chairman
306. Minister, thank you very much. I am tempted,
but I will contain my temptation, to ask you about the Saphir
report on Covent Garden as well but you are not here to do all
the sweeping up of previous inquiries, although horticultural
research was a very topical one. Thank you very much for giving
us your assistance on the subject of the Mid-Term Review. We will
no doubt see you again anon.
(Lord Whitty) Thank you very much indeed.
Chairman: A happy Christmas if we do not see
you before then.
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