1. INTRODUCTION* 
1.1 Following the report of Lord Ashby's Working Party,* which assessed 
the benefits and hazards of techniques of genetic manipulation, we were 
appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science, in consultation 
with his colleagues, with the following terms of reference: 
"In the light of the reports of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils' 
Working Party on the potential benefits and potential hazards associated 
with the genetic manipulation of micro-organisms* and of the Working 
Party on the Laboratory Use of Dangerous Pathogens - ! - — 
(a) to draft a central code of practice and to make recommendations for 
the establishment of a central advisory service for laboratories using the 
techniques available for such genetic manipulation, and for the 
provision of necessary training facilities: 
(b) to consider the practical aspects of applying in appropriate cases the 
controls advocated by the Working Party on the Laboratory Use of 
Dangerous Pathogens." 
We have met nine times and have received evidence from the bodies and 
individuals listed in Appendix I. of whom some met the Working Party and 
some submitted written evidence. We are grateful to our witnesses for the 
trouble they took to let us have their views, which have helped us in our 
considerations. 
1.2 We record our warm appreciation of the work of our two secretaries 
Dr. E. J. Herbert and Dr G. N. J Port, whose assistance and skill have con- 
tributed substantially to our considerations, and of the nelp we have had from 
the presence at our meetings of Mr. K. N. Burns (Agricultural Research 
Council), Dr. D O. Haines (Health and Safety Executive) and Dr T. Vickers 
(Medical Research Council). W'e also thank Miss Lynda Ison of the Depart- 
ment of Education and Science who typed most of our working papers and the 
several drafts of our report. 
1.3 We have concentrated our attention on work involving the creation of 
new genetic elements by methods such as those described in the Ashby Report 
whereby restriction enzymes or comparable biochemical methods are used to 
prepare fragments of nucleic acid and to link them into the genomes of viable 
heterologous organisms in which they are capable of continued propagation X 
This excludes genetic manipulations carried out by previously established 
methods that in principle simply add special selective methods to ger.etic 
changes that must occur in nature W’e briefly considered the implications 
of the probable eventual use of genetic manipulation techniques in large-scale 
manufacturing processes and concluded that this use is so remote that the 
increase in knowledge preceding such development will greatly contribute to 
their safety. The Government may need at a later stage to reconsider our 
proposed control measures in the light of such developments but we have 
concentrated in the present report on the types of laboratory experiment that 
we can foresee being undertaken in the next few years. W'e agree with the 
• Report of the Working Parly on the E*perimental Manipulation of the Genetic 
Composition of Micro-Organisms (Cmnd 5880. HMSO. January 1975). 
T Report of the Working Party on the Laboratory Use of Dangerous Pathogens (Cmnd 
< 054 . HMSO. May 1975). 
! References in this report to "genetic manipulation" are to be read in this limned sense. 
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