Donald Brydon
CBE, Chairman of the Royal Mail Group and Smiths Group, has been
selected as the Government’s preferred candidate to be the Chair
of the Medical Research Council (MRC).
The current MRC Chair Sir John Chisholm steps down at the end of
September.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee will
hold a pre-appointment hearing on 11 July and report on Donald
Brydon’s suitability for this post.
Notes to editors
1. The Medical Research Council (MRC) was established by Royal
Charter in 1920 and is funded through its sponsor the Department
for Business, Innovation and Skills. The MRC’s funding allocation
for 2011-12 is over £615m. In 2011-12 the MRC will employ the
equivalent of approximately 3000 full-time staff. Based in central
London and Swindon, the MRC is dedicated to improving human health
through world-class medical research. It supports research across
the biomedical spectrum, from fundamental lab-based science to
clinical trials, and in all major disease areas. The Council works
closely with the NHS, the UK Health Departments, the other UK
Research Councils, the biomedical community and other stakeholders
to identify and respond to the UK’s health needs. It gives a high
priority to research that is likely to make a real difference to
clinical practice and the health of the population. For further
information on the MRC see www.mrc.ac.uk.
2. Pre-appointment scrutiny hearings enable Select Committees to
take evidence from candidates for certain key public appointments
before they are appointed. Hearings are in public and involve the
Select Committee publishing a report setting out their views on
the candidate’s suitability for a post. Pre-appointment hearings
are non-binding but Ministers will consider the Committee’s views
before deciding whether to proceed with the appointment.
3. The Chairs of the all of the Research Councils
are listed as posts suitable for pre-appointment hearings. That
list was published in the Government’s Response to the Liaison
Committee’s First Special Report of Session 2007-08 (Liaison
Committee, First Special Report of Session 2007-08,
Pre-appointment hearings by Select Committees: Government
Response, HC 594).
4. The Government's economic policy objective is to
achieve 'strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is
more evenly shared across the country and between
industries.' It set four ambitions in the ‘Plan
for Growth’ (PDF 1.7MB), published at Budget 2011:
• To create the most competitive tax system in the G20
• To
make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a
business
• To encourage investment and exports as a route to a
more balanced economy
• To create a more educated workforce
that is the most flexible in Europe.
Work is underway across Government to achieve these ambitions,
including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth
Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to
this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with
more clarity about the long-term direction in which the Government
wants the economy to travel.
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