Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:56 pm on 20 October 2003.
Lord Whitty
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) (Food, Farming and Sustainable Energy)
2:56,
20 October 2003
My Lords, I of course condemn anyone who uses that information to trash trials which, as has been shown in the case of farm-scale trials, yield valuable information for making future decisions. However, an issue of transparency is also involved, both locally and nationally. The body that makes recommendations to the Secretary of State on the matter, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, advised that although the location was not needed for safety reasons it would be important for reasons of transparency. The Secretary of State accepted that recommendation. Regrettably, Bayer felt that it could not proceed as a result of that decision.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.