Science and Technology Committee
Phil Willis is the Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee.
The Committee exists to ensure that Government policy and decision-making are based on good scientific and engineering advice and evidence.
The Science and Technology Committee is unusual amongst departmental select committees in that it scrutinises the Government Office for Science (GO-Science), which is a “semi-autonomous organisation” based within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). GO-Science “supports the Government Chief Scientific Adviser and works to ensure that Government policy and decision-making is underpinned by robust scientific evidence”. The Committee therefore has a similarly broad remit and can examine the activities of departments where they have implications for, or made use of, science, engineering, technology and research.
The Science and Technology Committee was re-established on 1 October 2009. There was previously a Science and Technology Committee which was wound-up in 2007 and replaced by the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, which scrutinised both the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and science. Following the reorganisation of Whitehall announced by the Prime Minister in June 2009 DIUS became part of BIS and the House of Commons re-established a Science and Technology Committee focused on science. (There is a new, separate select committee, Business, Innovation and Skills, scrutinising BIS.) The new Science and Technology Committee has the same membership and Chairman as the former Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee
On the Committee:
Ben Goldacre, Guardian Journalist and author of 'Bad Science' - "I think select committees are really interesting and informative, the one place where politicians do what you’d want them to do all the time, which is to say, sit down and have a good think about policy."
Lord Drayson, Minister for Science - “Effective oversight of the use of science across government is important. I look forward to working with the Select Committee in supporting a dynamic science and research base.”
