Government still struggling to master the biotechnology agenda

The outcome of the Government's review of the regulatory and advisory framework for biotechnology was announced in May - though a series of leaks and its own inability to send a clear and consistent message undermined its efforts to get control of the biotechnology debate. Two new strategic advisory commissions, charged with consulting the public, are to be established, and the work of existing advisory bodies made more transparent. Whitehall watchers will have noted that the revised advisory arrangements for the environmental implications of genetically modified crops are centralised in the Cabinet Office.