Andrew Miller, chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, said that it has requested six-monthly reports from management about progress on ¡°one of the largest pieces of capital investment in recent years¡±.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators in Blackpool, Mr Miller said that the institute was ¡°expensive¡± thanks to the ¡°government¡¯s decision to locate it in central London¡±.

The Francis Crick Institute, a multidisciplinary medical research institute based at King¡¯s Cross, is scheduled for completion in autumn 2015.

Mr Miller said that the finished facility ¡°ought to be impressive, at a total cost of over ?600 million¡±. Half of the capital cost has come from the Medical Research Council, he added.

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The committee is also following closely developments in school science, where Mr Miller said there is a ¡°devaluation¡± of practical skills, which could affect the future scientific workforce.?

Earlier this year Ofqual, the examinations regulator, announced a move to a pass or fail system for practical work at A level and the decoupling of practical marks from overall grades.

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The move caused ¡°general outrage¡± among the scientific community, said Mr Miller, adding that ministers had stood by the decision despite evidence from scientists that they had ¡°gambled¡± with the ¡°future UK workforce¡±. ¡°We will therefore continue to consider this matter over the coming months,¡± he said.

¡°In the meantime, we suggest that [the government] must do better if the UK is to maintain its standing as a global scientific powerhouse,¡± he added.

Mr Miller, who is planning to stand down as an MP at the next election, said that science occupies a ¡°far more prominent place in government¡± than it did 22 years ago when he first arrived at Westminster.

But he said there is ¡°no room for complacency¡±. He added that the UK research base, although strong, remains ¡°behind the international curve¡± for delivering economic return from investments in research and is slow to commercialise the ¡°best innovations¡±.

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holly.else@tsleducation.com