SECRECY surrounding a review of the feasibility of privatising British
government research institutes has been sharply criticised by the House of
Commons Science and Technology Committee.
In a letter to science minister Ian Taylor, the committee鈥檚 chair,
Conservative MP Giles Shaw, criticises the 鈥減rior options鈥� review of research
institutes now being completed by Peter Levene, head of the Cabinet Office
Efficiency Unit.
鈥淚n the past the process has been open. The guidelines for the reviews were
deposited in the [House of Commons] Library,鈥� Shaw writes. 鈥淚t is now difficult
even for Parliament to discover what is being considered.鈥�
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The committee is concerned that Levene鈥檚 unit is only looking at the
financial feasibility of privatisation, not its wider implications. MPs on the
committee fear that the research councils may be unable to fulfil their stated
missions if they are shorn of many of their institutes.