APPENDIX 25
Memorandum from the Council for Science
and Technology
"Scientific advice, risk and evidence:
how Government handles them"
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Council for Science and Technology is the
UK Government's top-level advisory body on strategic science and
technology policy issues, reporting to the Prime Minister and
the First Ministers of the Devolved Administrations. It is an
independent body with its work programme developed by Council
members in discussion with government. The Council provides advice
to government through written reports and regularl meetings with
ministers and senior officials. Recent advice has covered energy
strategy, public dialogue, and the use of personal information
by government. Examples of the impact CST has had on the development
of policy since it was re-launched in 2004 are provided below.
CST'S REMIT
AND WAYS
OF WORKING
1. The Council for Science and Technology
(CST) is the UK Government's top-level advisory body on strategic
science and technology policy issues, reporting to the Prime Minister
and the First Ministers of the Devolved Administrations. CST focuses
on issues that cut across Government departments within the medium
to long-term. CST was re-launched in 2004 with new terms of reference
and ways of working, these are published on the Council's website,
www.cst.gov.uk, together with published reports and notes
of meetings.
2. Members of the Council are respected
senior figures drawn from across the field of science, engineering
and technology (list at Annex). They are appointed by the Prime
Minister and in line with guidance from the Office of the Commissioner
for Public Appointments. CST can draw on additional expertise
by inviting non-members to join subgroups that are taking forward
specific pieces of work.
3. The Council has two chairs, each with
a distinct role. Sir Keith Peters was elected from among the members;
he chairs any meeting where CST is discussing and developing its
advice to Government. Sir David King, the Government's Chief Scientific
Adviser, chairs those meetings where CST is reporting its advice
to Government.
4. CST is an independent body and its work
programme is developed by members in discussion with Government.
However, the Government can and does ask CST to consider particular
issues. The Council decides the approach to each area of work
on a case-by-case basis, considering how best it can add value.
It can also choose to deliver its advice to Government by various
routes including: publishing reports; through confidential written
advice; and through discussions with ministers, officials and
special advisers. The Government is required to respond to CST
reports.
5. The Council gathers its evidence through
commissioning studies on specific topics, organising meetings
and workshops bringing together individuals from across Government
and other bodies, and has organised dinner discussions with top
UK business people. The full council meets four times a year,
with guests invited to speak on topics of relevance to CST's work
programme. CST may also ask for written submissions.
6. After reports have been published, CST
continues to monitor developments, revisiting its reports periodically,
and feeds their recommendations into its other work. For example,
CST's report on how better public engagement can lead to improved
policy making (Policy through dialogue) has helped shape the conclusions
on our energy and public health reports
SCIENTIFIC ADVICE
PROVIDED TO
GOVERNMENT
7. In March 2004, the Government published
a consultation on its science and innovation 10-year investment
framework. CST wrote to the Chancellor setting out its views on
the emerging framework and offering to assist Government with
reviewing progress on implementing the framework. The Government
published its 10-year framework in July 2004 which acknowledged
a role for CST in providing advice on the prioritization of strategic
research issues.
8. In November 2004, CST wrote to the three
lead departments (DTI, DfES and the Treasury) welcoming the Government's
clear recognition of the strategic importance of science and technology
to our society, and flagging up a number of areas that the CST
sees as key issues for government and for the science base. CST
will assist Government wherever possible in taking forward the
aims of the framework document. CST will be responding to the
Government's discussion paper Science and innovation investment
framework 2004-14: next steps published with the 2006 Budget.
9. CST has produced a number of reports
and recommendations to Government. During 2005-06 CST has focused
on five main areas of work: innovation and wealth creation, the
use of personal information by Government, energy, public health
and the UK's research endeavour.
10. Recent reports are described below,
with examples of the impact CST has had on policy development.
The work on Real Options Analysis has a direct bearing on the
Select Committee's interest in the treatment of risk within Government
AN ELECTRICITY
SUPPLY STRATEGY
FOR THE
UK—MAY 2005
11. The CST report recommended:
(i) immediate investment in large scale,
low-carbon, energy generation facilities to meet the Government's
carbon dioxide reduction targets;
(ii) keeping the nuclear option open and
placing more emphasis on carbon sequestration and tidal power;
(iii) Government investment in R&D should
be aimed at new and renewable fuel sources, energy management,
storage and improving the supply and training of skilled workers
in the UK;
(iv) developing the transmission network
to facilitate distributed and diverse generation; and
(v) addressing the regulatory issues arising
from this form of generation. The report also highlighted the
collapse of energy RD&D budgets over the past 15 years, and
the accompanying reduction in workforce supply and training.
12. CST wrote to Malcolm Wicks in April
2006, responding to the Government's Energy Review. We provided
advice on the process for arriving at energy solutions—in
particular the importance of market solutions and how particular
technologies could contribute to the four energy goals. We have
looked at a set of timelines for the range of energy technologies
as we believe there is an urgent need to identify the fiscal and
other drivers that will create the framework to encourage deployment
of these technologies, as well as putting policies in place to
overcome the barriers to their successful deployment.
13. We also provided advice on the need
for public dialogue and engagement as an important component of
a successful energy policy.
14. Together with the Royal Academy of Engineering,
we arranged a conference "Energy 2100" which looked
at a range of emerging technologies which might help power the
UK and the world 100 years from now. It brought together 150 experts
in the field and provoked stimulating debate.
15. Our energy work is a very good example
of how CST has developed its relationship with Government on a
specific issue in providing independent advice as the agenda develops.
BETTER USE
OF PERSONAL
INFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES
AND RISKS—NOVEMBER
2005
16. In November 2005, CST published a report
that set out how the use of personal data by Government offers
enormous benefits, with the potential to create more efficient
and accessible public services, but that risks must be addressed
in order to secure these benefits. Key recommendations included:
— extensive public engagement
with the public and civil society groups;
— regulatory and governance frameworks
to minimise the risks;
— research into privacy enhancing
technologies;
— the creation of a focal point
within Government to plan and coordinate a joined-up approach.
17. CST commissioned a number of case studies
and arranged for a focus group exercise to engage in dialogue
with the public on the key issues. The case studies and focus
groups report are available on our website.
18. The report is having a far-reaching
impact within Government departments and beyond. The Department
for Transport's Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Frank Kelly,
came to meet the Council, and discuss the report's recommendations
with respect to the Government's "Data Grand Challenge".
Professor Kelly and Mark Walport (who chaired the CST subgroup)
debated these issues at a recent Foundation for Science and Technology
meeting.
19. The report has been praised at the most
senior levels across Whitehall, and is being fed into the Ministerial
Committee on Data Sharing, to which CST is expecting to give evidence.
The Information Commissioner has also recognised the value of
CST's recommendations, citing them in his response to the Cabinet
Office consultation on "Transformational Government—Enabled
by Technology" and in other fora.
20. CST will be continuing its interest
in the use of personal data, relating this work to aspects of
public health.
POLICY THROUGH
DIALOGUE—MARCH
2005
21. In March 2005, CST published a report
encouraging Government to do more to engage the public in the
development of science and technology based policies, without
which the economic and social gains expected from the 10-year
investment framework for science and innovation were at risk.
CST commissioned cases studies to identify how public dialogue
has influenced policy development and decision-making in science
and technology.
22. The report described how Government
should adopt an explicit framework for the use of public dialogue
to inform science and technology related policies, and emphasised
a set of specific processes that should be followed. The principles
from the report have underpinned much of CST's other work.
23. The Government accepted all of CST's
recommendations in its response (published in September 2005)
with parts of the report incorporated into the updated "Guidelines
On Scientific Analysis In Policy Making". To address CST's
call for the development of a "corporate memory", Government
is undertaking a scoping study to establish the remit of a cross-Government
resource on public dialogue, and has invited CST to conduct a
thorough review within three years of the response.
24. CST acted as a catalyst within Government,
by initiating contact between the Home Office Civil Renewal Unit
and OSI's Science and Society Directorate. "Together we can",
the Government's action plan to get citizens and public bodies
working together was published soon after, and refers to the report.
A UNIVERSAL ETHICAL
CODE FOR
SCIENTISTS—JANUARY
2006
25. CST worked with others to develop and
promulgate Rigour, respect and responsibility: a universal ethical
code for scientists. This one page document sets out the values
and responsibilities of scientists. It aims to foster ethical
research, encourage active reflection among scientists on the
wider implications and impacts of their work, and to support constructive
communication between scientists and the public on complex and
challenging issues. CST consulted widely on whether there was
a useful role for this code. Two main roles were identified: educating
and training new scientists; informing and supporting the development
of more specific codes.
26. The Science and Society Champions network
is piloting the ethical code across 10 departments, working out
how to embed it in their training, appraisals, guidelines etc.
Other bodies, including the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council and the Royal Academy of Engineering, are incorporating
the principles in their own codes.
REAL OPTIONS
ANALYSIS (ROA)—MAY
2005
27. CST has investigated the methods, tools,
and systems available to Government in making strategic investment
choices between different technologies to aid investment and monitor
progress in relation to the 10-year Science and Innovation Framework.
The report found that at this stage ROA was primarily useful as
a qualitative rather than quantitative tool for stimulating thinking
about the range of possible options available, and helping to
make decisions on which to invest in.
28. This is an important piece of work which
is starting to have an impact in a broader arena, for example
on the treatment of risk within Government, and processes which
Government might use to make choices.
WORK IN
PROGRESS
Innovation and wealth creation
29. CST is looking at two particular areas:
(i) identifying barriers to growth in high-tech
science-based SMEs and
(ii) the services sector.
Better use of Government Procurement is an important
theme in both areas.
30. The first challenge is to ensure that
the huge investments in science and technology, skills and education
that Government has made over the last nine years translate into
innovation and wealth creation by UK companies. There is a real
need to improve the absorptive capacity by business of Government-funded
R&D. Business innovation is an essential component of wealth
creation and is not just about R&D expenditure, but covers
areas such as marketing and skills. We believe that a focus purely
on R&D expenditure will not deliver the sort of wealth creation
Government wants to see.
31. SMEs across the board need to be incentivised
to increase their R&D, but high-technology, science-based
SMEs require particular attention to understand what is stopping
them growing larger. The number of spin-out companies growing
to medium-size and then into large organisations is lower than
expected in the UK compared with the US—one factor may be
the extent of their capacity to absorb research and development
from the science base and elsewhere. UK innovation policies spread
public sector finance more thinly compared with the US—typically
by a factor of four and through grants rather than contracts.
We believe Government can better meet its own objectives and stimulate
innovation in business through better use of public procurement.
32. The services sectors account for over
80% of the UK economy and a substantial proportion of net exports.
Many companies are highly innovative but relatively poorly connected
to Government and the academic research base. Where there is connection,
it is fragmented around different departments. The challenge for
Government is to understand the needs of the services sectors,
foster innovation, find ways to connect them to the research base
and universities and develop an overall strategy to interacting
with these important and high value-added sectors of business.
33. We will be putting forward proposals
to the Government on these issues in the autumn.
34. CST met the Prime Minister to discuss
these and other matters on 27 June, 2006.
Scientific input into Public Health
35. CST has been looking at how potential
health impacts are assessed and used in policy-making across Government—this
is an important issue that must go wider than the Department of
Health. A report will be delivered to Government in the Autumn.
36. Recommendations will cover stakeholder
engagement in the policy-making process—embedding health
considerations at a very early stage of policy development in
a common and consistent way which will lead to greater robustness
and predictability; the use and availability of evidence—the
extent to which health evidence has been sought, the quality of
that evidence and how to remedy any shortcomings; and the need
for public engagement.
Other current projects
37. Research Endeavour—CST
is considering how to ensure that the UK remains at the forefront
of the international research endeavour over the next 20 years,
through a sustainable structural base, and access to a pool of
bright, creative people whose capabilities meet business and society's
needs.
38. Nanotechnology—CST is
reviewing progress on actions set out in the Government's response
to the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering report "Nanoscience
and Nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties", reporting
in Spring 2007.
June 2006
Annex
CST MEMBERSHIP
Sir David King—Government Chief Scientific
Adviser.
Sir Keith Peters—Elected independent co-chair
of CST in March 2004, President of Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Sir John Beringer—Chairman of
the John Innes Centre Governing Council, previously Pro-Vice-Chancellor,
University of Bristol.
Professor Geoffrey Boulton—Vice Principal
and Regius Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, University of
Edinburgh.
Professor Janet Finch—Vice-Chancellor,
University of Keele.
Andrew Gould—Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer, Schlumberger Limited.
Professor Wendy Hall—Professor of Computer
Science, University of Southampton.
Dr Hermann Hauser—Venture Capitalist:
co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners Limited.
Dr Dieter Helm—Fellow in Economics, New
College, Oxford.
Professor Alan Hughes—Director of the
Centre for Business Research (CBR) and Professor of Enterprise
Studies at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Dr Sue Ion—Member of Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council, previously Executive Director of Technology,
British Nuclear Fuels plc.
Sir Rob Margetts—Chairman, BOC Group plc;
Chairman, Legal and General Group plc; Chairman, Natural Environment
Research Council.
Sir Paul Nurse—President, Rockefeller
University, New York.
Dr Raj Rajagopal—Chief Executive, BOC
Edwards and Executive Director, BOC Group plc.
Professor Michael Sterling—Vice-Chancellor,
University of Birmingham.
Professor Kathy Sykes—Professor of Public
Engagement in Science and Engineering, Bristol University.
Dr Mark Walport—Director, Wellcome Trust.
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