To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2007, Official Report, column 766W, on climate change, what the publication date is for the final report of the independent review into the activities of the Meteorological Office Hadley Centre. (134591)

The final report on the independent review into the activities of the Meteorological Office Hadley Centre is due to be published by early summer.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) if he will make it his policy that, at the forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Bangkok, temperature data be made available as part of the summary for policy makers; and if he will make a statement; (135052)

[holding answer 1 May 2007]: The forthcoming meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Bangkok will comprise the ninth session of IPCC Working Group III and the 26th session of the IPCC. The first meeting will accept the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and approve its Summary for Policymakers (SPM). The second meeting will accept the actions by the sessions of IPCC Working Groups I, II and III, review the IPCC terms of reference and discuss future work.

The reports of the IPCC are written by hundreds of scientists from across the world and provide an assessment of peer-reviewed scientific and technical literature on climate change. The IPCC does not carry out new research. As such, all the data contained within the IPCC's reports are already available in published literature and are independent of Government.

The SPM summarises the findings of the underlying report. The SPM is drafted by scientists and agreed by all Governments at the IPCC plenaries. The agreement of the SPM helps to communicate the IPCC outputs to Governments. No one Government, organisation or individual has sole responsibility for any part of the report.