Scientist jobs at risk at National Physical Laboratory in ‘panic cuts’ (From This Is Local London)

Scientist jobs at risk at National Physical Laboratory in ‘panic cuts’

6:50am Sunday 13th December 2009 in

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Up to 60 scientists could lose their jobs in “panic cuts”, according to MP Vince Cable.

The posts under threat are at the pioneering National Physical Laboratory, in Hampton Road, Teddington.

The Government admitted some job losses were possible, but denied anything other than “a small number” of redundancies was being considered by the private company which operates the labs.

The Twickenham MP has asked for an urgent meeting with Lord Mandelson, whose Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is the major customer of the labs, providing the science for the nation’s measurement system.

He has also called for a parliamentary debate about the “foolish, panic cuts which will undermine Britain’s long-term science capability”.

The Government disputes Dr Cable’s figure of “between 50 and 60” jobs being in jeopardy, but did concede that lay-offs were on the agenda.

A BIS spokesman said: “The private company that runs the labs is considering a small number of redundancies, and we’re talking with them as a major customer of theirs.”

He added the department was confident there would be no threat to the measurement service that the lab currently delivered, but – ironically – declined to quantify “small” in numerical terms.

He said discussions were continuing between BIS and the lab authorities.

Dr Cable’s assertion is that in flailing around for savings a departmental underling at BIS has simply lopped off a limb of the Government’s business budget without considering the consequences.

He said: “What seems to have happened is a junior civil servant has put a red line through key bits of science research without any thought being given as to the options or the implications.”

The MP’s fear is the whole field of science in the UK could suffer if the capabilities of such a key institution as the National Physical Laboratory were undermined by cuts.

He added: “The NPL is one of the world’s leading centres for the science of measurement and standard setting in physics. Its work is regarded as essential not just for science but for British industry.

“The Teddington laboratories are key building blocks for British science as a whole.

“Only a bureaucrat totally unfamiliar with science would have embarked on a programme of panic cuts without doing a preliminary assessment of the risks and costs.

“This must be stopped.”