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The government has created a new agency to boost research on food and the environment, farming minister Jane Kennedy has said.
The Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) will hold responsibility for work on plant and crop protection, food production and responses to environmental crisis settings.
The new agency will combine the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Central Science Laboratory, Plant Health Division, Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate and the Plant Variety Rights Office and Seed Division.
The move was described as an effort to simplify government agencies.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) explained that the merger will remove delays to businesses, as well as creating rapid reaction capabilities to protect the public interest.
FERA was formally established on Wednesday, but has been informally running since last April. It will be officially introduced on April 1, 2009.
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser at Defra, said: "We have positioned excellence in science at the top of Defra's agenda to make sure we are producing the best evidence to develop appropriate solutions for problems occurring in ecosystems, water supplies, the climate and food.
"The creation of FERA is a landmark step in taking the best research forward and making our systems as streamlined as possible."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd