My Lords, I support Amendments 493, 494 and 495, to which I have added my name. I must declare interests as chair of the advisory board of CEH, a trustee at Rothamsted and chair of the strategic advisory board of the Government’s Global Food Security programme. As has been explained, these amendments are designed to broaden the vision of the purposes of the research to take place under the councils within UKRI. It is wrong for the primary focus of Clause 89(4)(a) to be pinpointed solely on economic growth. To my mind, that is a throwback to the bad old days of the 1980s, when competing in the marketplace at all costs was considered the primary purpose of life. We soon realised that that was not sustainable. I say that as a past member of the Round Table on Sustainable Development, so I use “sustainable” in that context advisedly.
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I realise that post Brexit, there is a new urgency to the economic agenda, but we need to ensure we maintain a longer term and wider vision of life on this planet. For instance, where in Clause 87(1) or Clause 89(4) does the wider environment feature? I realise that Clause 89(4)(b) refers to “improving quality of life”, both in the UK and the wider world, but what does it mean by “life”? One would hope that it means not only human life, but that could be the implication, following the rather narrow ambition currently expressed in paragraph (a) of that clause. I suppose one could take the view that the very long-term quality of just human life on earth will depend on the research work we do to maintain the quality of habitats, water and the living environment for all species on our planet—including bugs and bacteria; from elephants to plankton—but it would be better to spell that out for the sake of clarity and to include a reference to the wider environment in Clause 89(4).
Then there is the fact, to which other noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Willis, have referred, that one of the features of basic primary research is that you never know where it is going to lead. Sometimes just improving our knowledge base now could be really important for some aspect of science or life in 50 years’ time, possibly for an aspect that is not even on our radar at the moment. That broad principle is not given sufficient weight in either paragraph. This is where our Amendment 495 would be a beneficial addition to Clause 89, and I hope the Minister will be able to accept it. Perhaps the wording of the three amendments is not quite right, but there is no doubt that Clause 89(4) as it stands is far too narrow to set a science agenda for the 21st century.