Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that public bodies sponsored by his Department will be free to fulfil their duties based on evidence and scientific fact.

Several of Defra’s public bodies are Public Sector Research Establishments and form an integral part of the Defra group science system. They share, as part of their remit, a role in providing quality scientific evidence and expert advice to Government in their respective disciplines.