Correspondence from The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to the Chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee Thank you for your letter of 5 February on behalf of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee about the GM public debate. I am sorry for the delay in replying. You mentioned that the Committee was concerned about the timing of the GM public debate. As you may know, I have now agreed to extend the timetable for the public debate to allow the Public Debate Steering Board to submit their final report to Government in September. You recommended that we make public pronouncements about the Government=s policy on GM in order to draw attention to the debate. As you are aware, Michael Meacher made a speech at the Gene Futures conference on 11 February, which explained the Government=s current policy on GM, to help set the context for the debate. We will continue to identify further speech opportunities and I anticipate further Ministerial involvement in the regional meetings in May, which will launch the visible part of the public debate programme. You also expressed concern about the level of funding for the debate. You will be aware that the original estimate from COI was that the debate would cost ,250,000. Subsequently, COI revised their estimates and suggested several components of the debate that collectively totalled ,1.25 million. However, the Public Debate Steering Board did not request any particular level of funding. I have recently confirmed that Government will provide ,500,000 to fund the public debate, double the original budget. In addition, my Department will meet the cost of COI=s management fee and will continue to provide considerable administrative support. I understand that the Public Debate Steering Board are satisfied that this will be sufficient to enable them to deliver a high-quality and credible public debate programme. Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP 14 March 2003 .