PRIVATlSATION is back on the agenda for 37 state-run research
establishments, from police science laboratories to health and safety
laboratories, to the British Geological Survey. Ian Lang, the President of the
Board of Trade, this week set out the timetable for 鈥減rior option鈥� reviews of
each establishment.
鈥淓ach review will consider the potential for privatisation or
rationalisation,鈥� says Lang. Privatisation of most of the laboratories and
agencies has already been rejected once by the government鈥檚 Efficiency Unit,
which was looking for ways to cut costs by privatising public services.
Following a study in 1994, costing 拢180 000, the unit recommended that
most of the 53 institutes it investigated should remain in public
ownership.
The lobby group Save British Science believes that the new reviews are
pointless. 鈥淚t鈥檚 repeating an exercise that鈥檚 already wasted a lot of time and
money,鈥� says its secretary John Mulvey. 鈥淭his is, no doubt, all at the expense
of money that should be spent on research.鈥�
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