To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has asked the British Geological Survey to carry out a survey of soil and rock formation in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Systematic geological surveys in Great Britain are one of the main tasks of the British Geological Survey, for which it is funded mainly through the science vote. The soil survey of England and Wales was transferred in July 1987 from the Agricultural and Food Research Council to the Cranfield institute of technology, to form part of the soil survey and land use research centre funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.