Government is open minded on the topic. There are compelling reasons why Government should think seriously about commercialisation because research and innovation is particularly vital for the UK, a country poor in natural resources but rich in skills. It is essential for the national well-being not only to retain a place in the forefront of scientific advance, but that those advances, whether in agricultural biotechnology or in any other field, are put to commercial use for the benefit of the UK as a whole. In the past, Britain has been one of the technological leaders of the world. It would be very ill-advised to abandon any significant progress in technology as a consequence of exaggerated and unfounded fears

- why did they feel it necessary to decide on sites for the Farm Scale Evaluation trials without local consultation?

There is a legal requirement to inform local communities of the FSE trial sites rather than engage in local consultation. There was increasing local consultation over the later FSE trials sites.

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