DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (08/09) issued by
COI News Distribution Service. 14 January 2009
A new national
research centre for food and the environment will strengthen
Defra's ground-breaking food, farming and environmental
research programme, Farming Minister Jane Kennedy announced today.
The Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) will bring
together Defra's Central Science Laboratory, Plant Health
Division, Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate and the Plant
Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division as one agency. This will
significantly strengthen Defra's work in plant and crop
protection, food chain safety, environmental risk assessment and
crises response and promote better integration between policy
development, scientific evidence and inspection services.
The merger will also enable a more rapid response to protect the
public interest, and remove delays for businesses involved in both
national and international trade.
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific advisor at Defra
said:
"We have positioned excellence in science at the
top of Defra's agenda to make sure we are producing the best
evidence to develop appropriate solutions for problems occurring
in ecosystems, water supplies, the climate and food. The creation
of Fera is a landmark step in taking the best research forward and
making our systems as streamlined as possible."
Adrian Belton, chief executive of The Food and Environment
Research Agency, said:
"The Food and Environment Research
Agency puts Defra at the heart of the debate on food security and
the science behind environmental issues. By combining policy
development, scientific evidence and risk assessment Fera can play
a full role in addressing challenges in the natural environment."
There will be an official launch of the new Agency in spring.
Notes to editors
1. Fera comes into being officially on 1 April 09. This is to
denote the legal creation of the agency as announced to Parliament
in a written ministerial statement laid by Jane Kennedy. The
agency has been operating in shadow form since April 2008.
2. Fera will be formed by merging Defra's Plant Health
Division (PHD), which includes bee health and the Plant Health and
Seeds Inspectorate (PHSI), the Plant Variety Rights Office and
Seeds Division (PVS) and the Central Science Laboratory.
3. The Agency's main science laboratories will be located at
Sand Hutton near York (currently CSL), with seed offices in
Cambridge, a wildlife study centre in Gloucestershire and around
40 other small shared office facilities for its plant health
inspectorate around the UK.
4. Please see the CSL website for information about what CSL
currently does: http://www.csl.gov.uk
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