16:44 Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)

I visited the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. It is partly the instrument of our presence in the Antarctic. I recognise, as we all do, the constraints on public funding at this time. The Natural Environment Research Council is a perfectly responsible body, but I hope that when those two bodies come together, the role of the BAS is still recognised for its importance in securing our presence in the Antarctic and in researching its interesting history and the story it can tell of how the earth developed and how climate change, oddly enough, has been an issue for many centuries. If we drill into the ice, we can look back over 800,000 years to explore what has happened. That process alone—carried out by the BAS—has been of decisive importance. I ask the Minister to think carefully about our presence in the Antarctic and the role of scientific exploration there.

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