1 INTRODUCTION
1. This Committee is appointed by the House of Commons
to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office
of Science and Technology (OST) and its associated public bodies.[1]
These "associated public bodies" are not clearly defined:
the non-Departmental Public Bodies associated with the OST are,
strictly speaking, sponsored by its parent Department, the Department
of Trade and Industry (DTI) rather than by OST itself. We have
taken the term to mean the seven Research Councils and the Council
for Science and Technology, and (in part) the Human Genetics Commission
and the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission.[2]
2. As part of our scrutiny of the Research Councils,
we have been holding separate scrutiny sessions with each of the
Councils, with the objective of calling in all seven over the
course of the Parliament. So far, we have published Reports on
the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the
Medical Research Council (MRC), the Natural Environment Research
Council (NERC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council (BBSRC) and the Council for the Central Laboratory of
the Research Councils (CCLRC). We announced our inquiry into the
remaining Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC), on 30 June 2004 and invited evidence from interested parties.
3. We received seven memoranda of written evidence
and held one oral evidence session on 20 October 2004 with the
Chief Executive of ESRC, Professor Ian Diamond; the Director for
Research, Training and Development, Adrian Alsop; the Director
of Policy and Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, Glyn Davies;
and an ESRC Council Member, Professor Patricia Broadfoot. We subsequently
received further memoranda of evidence from ESRC in answer to
supplementary questions. The evidence received and a transcript
of the oral evidence session are published with this Report. The
Committee previously held an introductory oral evidence session
with Professor Diamond on 22 January 2003 following his appointment
to the post of Chief Executive of ESRC.
4. We are very grateful to all those who submitted
evidence to this inquiry and to ESRC for the co-operative manner
in which staff there have provided information in response to
our many requests.
1 House of Commons Standing Order No. 152 Back
2
The Human Genetics Commission is jointly sponsored by OST and
the Department of Health. The Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology
Commission is jointly sponsored by OST and the Department of the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Back
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