MRC chief cleared

The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee this week waded into the battle over the proposed move of the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research to a London university site when it published a report clearing the council of accusations of "coercion".

The report says that the MRC's chief executive, Colin Blakemore, may have been "heavyhanded" when he sought to achieve consensus on the future of the institute. But the report concludes that he had no hidden agenda. It says an independent taskforce set up to decide the future of the NIMR "reached its decisions in a rational and coherent manner".