There was also debate on whether the new laboratory would be an outpost of the prestigious NPL (which now has its main base in Teddington, just west of London), or have a separate identity.
Indeed, the growing need for quality-assurance in FEA led to the foundation of the National Agency for Finite Element Methods and Standards, now operating simply as NAFEMS.
In practice, re-organisation has in some cases stopped short of a straight sale of these internationally important facilities, but NEL became part of the German-owned TÜV SÜD group in 1995.
NEL holds the national standard for flow measurement, one of the most important roles it undertakes as part of the overall UK government science strategy.
This is now in the remit of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, working in part through the new National Measurement Office, which is itself an Executive Agency created in April 2009.