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Mr. Dalyell: I have confidence in the embryology authority, but there has been much press criticism of it. Do the Government have a view on that?

Miss Johnson: When I recently had the pleasure of appearing before the Science and Technology Committee, chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North, I expressed the view, on my own and the Government's behalf, that we have considerable faith in the work that the HFEA has been doing and in its role. People are always challenging the authority's work, sometimes through the courts, and there are indeed some challenges on which it would be wrong for me to comment. It is a difficult field, but the regulatory structures and frameworks are working well. The HFEA has an important role in maintaining trust and credibility in the structures that the House has put in place.

With the regulations that we have passed, UK scientists have the potential to use the new methods to develop cures for serious diseases. We are convinced that therapeutic cloning holds enormous promise for new treatments for serious degenerative conditions that are currently incurable, such as Parkinson's disease, heart disease and diabetes, which kill many millions of people a year. That was one of the contributory factors in a lot of the lobbying carried out by many organisations before the debates that took place in 2000 and 2001. That lobbying had a considerable influence on hon. Members, who rightly listened to the voices of the people who were dealing with the very difficult situations of millions of patients in this country and abroad.

In May 2004, the Government created the world's first stem cell bank: the UK stem cell bank will act as a repository for all types of stem cells and ensure that they
 
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have been ethically and appropriately sourced. The bank also helps to fulfil our obligations to ensure that embryos will be used only for research into serious disease and when no other sources of material are available.

In August last year, the HFEA granted its first licence for therapeutic cloning to a team at Newcastle university—in fact, that licence was first of its kind in Europe—and in February this year, a second licence to study motor neurone disease was granted to the same team at the Roslin Institute where Dolly the sheep was created. So the UK cloning story has come full circle, with a display of confidence in the UK regulatory system from our own stem cell researchers.

Mr. Dalyell: Graham Bulfield, who was the director of the Roslin Institute and is now one of the vice-principals of the university of Edinburgh, was concerned at the time about the complexity of some of the regulations. This is difficult for the Government's lawyers, the parliamentary draftsmen and others, but is every effort being made to make the regulations as simple as they can be? Often it may be very difficult to make them simple.

Miss Johnson: I suspect that my hon. Friend understands very well the difficulty of keeping things simple. We certainly try to do our best—I am sure that civil servants do, too—to ensure that things are as simple as possible, but that is not always easy, when dealing with lawyers, sometimes including parliamentary draftsmen, in my experience, although I shall probably receive many brickbats for saying so in the House. I am sure that, to be fair to those who draft our legislation, such things may be particularly difficult with this issue. Obviously, all hon. Members on both sides of the House have an obligation to ensure that such things are kept as simple and uncomplicated as possible.

As my hon. Friend refers to the links with Scotland and Edinburgh, I should tell him that my noble Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Health in the other place deals with many of the day-to-day issues that relate to stem cell research, and I will draw his attention to the points raised about the links with Scotland and the Scottish authorities. Of course, although we are the lead Department, we are only one of a number of Departments. The Department of Trade and Industry is responsible for things such as research council funding, and I gather that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office also promotes UK stem cell research abroad. So a range of different Departments is involved. Of course, we try to keep in touch with colleagues in Scotland as closely as well can at all times.

Mr. Dalyell: The Scottish scientific community appreciates the work of Lord Sainsbury, and indeed that of his officials. May I also make it clear that, if any brickbats are thrown at parliamentary draftsmen, they do not come from me? I was taught a very early lesson when I asked Harold Macmillan—the Prime Minister when I was first elected to the House of Commons—a question, and he replied by saying that he would send
 
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the parliamentary draftsman to explain how difficult it was, so for the past forty-two and a half years, I have known the difficulties of parliamentary draftsmen.

Miss Johnson: I am glad that I have such distinguished friends on my side in what could be difficult fallout from the debate, I fear. May I tell my hon. Friend, however, that the noble Lord that I had in mind was Lord Warner? However, I entirely endorse his comments about Lord Sainsbury.

Of course, the Government are committed to make our country a world leader in stem cell research. In fact, that commitment has been taken up repeatedly by the Prime Minister, who made a major speech in 2003, in which he said that he wanted to make this country the best place in the world to carry out stem cell research.

Rob Marris (Wolverhampton, South-West) (Lab): The Government are doing a lot, as has been discussed tonight, but one measure of the Government's commitment, of course, is how much money is devoted to any field of endeavour. I realise from what the Minister has said that there is a multiplicity of programmes and perhaps a multiplicity of funding streams, but will she tell us roughly how much the Government spend each year on stem cell research? My understanding is that the sum needed, and what science would like to have, is about £90 million a year.

Miss Johnson: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. I was going to come to spending in a moment, but I can do so now if that suits hon. Members.

In the 2002 spending review, the Government allocated £40 million to a major cross-Government investment in stem cell research. That will be made available in 2004–05 and 2005–06, with the following allocations: the Medical Research Council will receive £26 million; the Economic and Social Research Council, £1.8 million; the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, £1.2 million; the Council for the Central Laboratory of Research Councils, £400,000; and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, £10.6 million.

In January this year, the Department of Trade and Industry announced that it will contribute £4.9 million in funding to three specific projects in stem cell research. Those projects are led by the companies NovaThera, Stem Cell Sciences and ReNeuron. The respective aims of the projects vary from identifying factors that control the reproduction and differentiation of stem cells to developing high-throughput screening for drugs and stem cell technology for neurological diseases. The projects range in size from £2.2 million up to £4.5 million, with between five and eight collaborators in each consortium. The DTI funding for each project ranges from £1.2 million to £2.1 million. Although seven of the collaborative partners are based in London or the south-east of England, the other partners are spread throughout the UK—two are from the east midlands or the east of England, three from the north of England, three from Scotland and one from Wales.

In the 2004 spending review, the Government announced £10 billion of spending on UK science over the period 2005 to 2008. In the new science spending allocations for the spending review announced today,
 
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the UK funding for biotechnology, including stem cell research and DNA-based medicines, via the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, will rise to more than £1 billion over the next three years. There will also be an increase over the next three years to £1.5 billion for the Medical Research Council, including more than £440 million for clinical research into diseases such as those related to mental health, stroke, cancers and diabetes. The DTI said today that the Government's spending on UK science will be the largest ever investment in British science by any Government and that it will rise to more than £3.4 billion a year by 2008. We believe that that is a testament to our commitment to make the UK the best place in the world to do science.

Mr. Dalyell: Those figures are impressive, but so is the generosity of several foundations, not least the Wellcome Trust. Are Ministers at ease with the co-ordination that takes place between the Government and the great and generous foundations? Is the research meshed to the best effect?

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