Yet it was this doomed committee which investigated the very real fears Daresbury was being secretly prepared for closure, following savage job cuts.

The laboratory – which researches the molecular properties of matter – was the hardest hit of three run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), as it imposed £80m cuts.

Related cuts in research grants to universities also threatened Liverpool university’s physics department with a £5m reduction over three years.

And it was MPs on the innovation committee who raised the alarm over the future of the Catalyst Museum, at Spike Island, the country’s only hands-on museum devoted to chemistry and how it is used in everyday life.

Phil Willis, its Liberal Democrat chairman, said: "We face the reality that science could be lost in a black hole of this new, all-encompassing ‘super department’ of Business, Innovation and Skills."

Evan Harris, another Lib Dem member of the committee, was even more critical, saying: "There is consternation that neither of the words 'universities' nor 'science' appears in the name of the department.

"The science minister is also forced to take on defence duties as well and there is a real fear that the needs of strategic, long-term science will be subordinate to business."

But Pat McFadden, a business minister, hit back, saying: "We face a worldwide economic downturn and, in those circumstances, it makes absolute sense to bring together science, business, and higher and further education."