AGM Statement

Oxford Instruments PLC
31 July 2001



For release: 2.30pm, 31 July 2001


Annual General Meeting

Chairman's Statement

At today's Annual General Meeting Nigel Keen, Chairman of Oxford Instruments
plc, the advanced instrumentation company, made the following statement:

'New orders across the Company for the first quarter of the year to 31 March
2002 are running at the same level as the first quarter of last year,
consistent with our expectations. As we indicated at the time of our year end
results announcement in June, new orders from the semiconductor industry are
significantly down on the high rate achieved in the second half of last year,
when they represented about 20% of Group orders. However the medical and
scientific research sectors served by the Company have held up well. This,
together with our record opening order book at the start of the year, means
that our expectations for the first half remain on budget.

Performance for the full year will depend on the order intake over the next
few months. Whilst we have some visibility of the near-term order pipeline in
the specialist markets which we and our OEM customers serve, we cannot expect
to be totally immune from the recent worldwide slowdown in industrial capital
expenditure. However, our opening order book should help to sustain our
turnover in the current year in the event of any softening of orders. At the
same time we are continuing to achieve benefits from the aggressive
operational improvement programmes already in progress.'

Enquiries contact:
Andrew Mackintosh, Oxford Instruments plc              Tel: [phone]
Martin Lamaison, Oxford Instruments plc                Tel: [phone]
Chris Barrie, Citigate Dewe Rogerson                   Tel: [phone]