Select Committee on Science and Technology; About the Committee
Function Membership Staff Operation Inquiries
Exerting influence Recent Inquiries S&T in Parliament
Introduction
The select committee system plays an important role in enabling Parliament to scrutinise the work of Government. Parliament, i.e. the House of Commons and the House of Lords, is not part of Government. This distinction is important since it is the independence of select committees that permits them to fulfil their role effectively in holding Government to account. The Science and Technology Committee is one of 18 departmental select committees in the House of Commons charged with monitoring the work and activities of a specific Government department. The Science and Technology Committee is unusual in that it monitors the Office of Science and Innovation, which is part of the Department of Trade and Industry, rather than a department in its own right. There is also a Science and Technology Committee in the House of Lords which has a broad mandate to 'consider science and technology'. There are no departmental select committees in the House of Lords.
The function of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of Science and Innovation and its associated public bodies. This includes the seven UK Research Councils, the Council for Science and Technology, the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering.
The Office of Science and Innovation defines its mission as 'supporting excellent science, engineering and technology and their uses to benefit society and the economy'. The Committee therefore has a similarly broad remit. This means that the Committee's work may address the activities of other Government departments where they have implications for, or make use of, science, technology and research. Recent examples that fall into this category include the Committee's inquiries into the scientific response to terrorism, which looked at the work of the Home Office, and the use of science in UK international development.
The members of the Committee are Members of Parliament (MPs) drawn from the three major political parties in the same proportions as the overall party proportions in the House of Commons. The Committee therefore has six Labour MPs, three Conservative MPs and two Liberal Democrat MP. The members are nominated by the Committee of Selection on the advice of the Whips. Ministers, Parliamentary Private Secretaries and Official Opposition Spokespersons do not normally sit on departmental select committees and MPs can only sit on one departmental committee at any one time. Members of the Committee are appointed for the duration of an entire Parliament, i.e. from one general election until the next, but there are usually a few changes, for example due to a member of the Committee being promoted to a ministerial, or shadow ministerial, position.
The Whips establish quotas for the numbers of select committee chairmen from each political party, but within these the Committee is free to choose its own Chairman. The current Chairman of the Committee is Mr. Phil Willis, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
The Committee is supported by a small secretariat, headed by the Clerk of the Committee. The Clerk manages the other staff and serves as principal adviser to the Chairman on the running of the Committee. The Second Clerk deputises for the Clerk and a Committee Assistant, Committee Secretary and Senior Office Clerk provide administrative support and assist in the publication of Reports. Two Committee Specialists, with backgrounds in science and science policy, are employed on four year contracts to provide specialist support to the Committee. The Clerks and Specialists all manage inquiries and assist in the drafting of briefing material and Reports.
The work of the Committee mainly takes the form of inquiries. The Committee decides on its own work programme, conducting inquiries into issues that it believes are important and topical. Ideas for inquiries can come from anywhere - the choice of topics reflects the particular interests of Committee members, the impact that the Committee believes it can make, and the timeliness of the inquiry. Major inquiries can take more than a year, but the Committee also conducts short inquiries into subjects that it considers need attention but do not merit a lengthy inquiry. Short inquiries can be particularly useful for tackling issues that are time-sensitive.
The core task of the Committee is to monitor the Office of Science and Innovation and its associated public bodies. It publishes an annual Report on the Office of Science and Innovation and conducts inquiries into each of the seven Research Councils during the course of a Parliament. In addition, the Committee holds introductory hearings with major new appointments to the Office of Science and Technology and its associated public bodies. The Committee does not have any formal powers to approve or reject these appointments but may publish a short Report if it identifies any areas of concern. In this Parliament, for example, the Committee has published Reports on the introductory hearings that it held with the Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, the Director General for Higher Education and the Director General of the Research Councils.
The Minister for Science and Innovation, has agreed to appear before the Committee for a half-hour 'Science Question Time' session four times per year. Because Lord Sainsbury is in the House of Lords, MPs are not given the opportunity to question him on a regular basis, as they would do if he was in the House of Commons. Science Question Time was introduced to compensate for this. The public are welcome to attend these sessions and, on occasion, the Committee has invited questions from the public to put to the Minister.
Once the Committee has decided to conduct an inquiry into a particular topic, a public call for evidence is issued, inviting written submissions from interested parties. Anybody who wishes to contribute written evidence is free to do so and the Committee welcomes submissions from individuals as well as from organisations, although the Committee is not obliged to accept the evidence submitted. In addition, whilst the Committee will usually publish the memoranda of evidence received along with the final Report, evidence which has been published as a document elsewhere may not be published.
Once the written evidence has been received and digested, oral evidence sessions are held. These are open to the public and are frequently televised or broadcast via the internet. Witnesses for oral evidence sessions may be the key players in the subject under scrutiny, or may be selected on the basis of the written evidence that they have submitted. However, those who are invited to give oral evidence have not necessarily submitted more interesting evidence than those who are not invited, and the same weighting is given to all the written evidence received irrespective of whether the organisation who submitted it is subsequently invited to give oral evidence. The objective of the oral evidence sessions is to enable the Committee to explore the issues in more detail and to draw out the themes that have emerged from the written evidence. The number of oral evidence sessions held during an inquiry varies considerably - scrutiny of a Research Council entails a single session, whereas twelve evidence sessions are being held for the inquiry into human reproductive technologies and the law.
Once all the evidence has been taken and the Committee has deliberated, a Report is published containing the Committee’s conclusions and recommendations. Recommendations are generally directed at the Government but the Committee can comment on, or draw conclusions about, other relevant parties such as industry or individual researchers. In Session 2005-06 the Committee published 8 Reports.
The Committee may decide to undertake visits in conjunction with its inquiries. For example, the Committee visited a number of schools in the UK during its inquiry into science education between the ages of 14 and 19, whilst for its inquiry into Government investment in nanotechnology it travelled to Germany. These visits are important for enabling Committee members to gain a deeper understanding of the issues involved in the inquiry and provide an opportunity for them to see first hand problems or solutions that have been alluded to in the evidence.
The Committee often appoints one or more Specialist Advisers for an inquiry. These are experts in the field under study who may assist the Committee in explaining technical issues and providing briefing material and background information. Specialist Advisers are expected to act in an impartial manner and do not determine the conclusions that the Committee arrives at or the tone of the Report.
Following the publication of the Committee’s Report, the Government is obliged to respond to each of the conclusions and recommendations made within a period of two months. The Government may choose to accept or reject the Committee’s views, but even when a recommendation is rejected it may play a role in influencing subsequent discussions, or be used to inform policy development at a later date. An example of a Committee recommendation adopted by the Government is provided by the five year moratorium on the use of genetic testing by insurance companies recommended in the Committee’s Report on genetic testing and insurance. The Government Response is usually published without comment, although the Committee has the option of commenting on it, or publishing a further Report on it that the Government will in turn need to respond to.
Often the very act of undertaking an inquiry has an important effect. In preparing evidence for the Committee, the Government has to articulate and defend its policy and may, as a result of this process, decide to review it. In addition, comments made by witnesses during oral evidence sessions can draw attention to the strengths and weaknesses of a particular department or policy area. For example, the Secretary of State for International Development told the Committee that its inquiry into science and international development had helped to convince him of the need for a Chief Scientific Adviser in his department, in advance of the Committee publishing its Report.
The Committee also revisits subjects of previous inquiries from time to time, which helps to ensure that recommendations etc. are followed up and can bring further impetus for change.
The Committee’s decision to conduct a particular inquiry may arouse debate in the media and the media sometimes reports on comments made during the oral evidence sessions. Reports often generate media interest and the Government, or other relevant parties, may be asked to publicly justify their position. The extensive media coverage of the Committee’s Report on scientific publications has, for instance, increased the pressure on the Government to defend its policy in this area.
Committee Reports are sometimes debated in the House of Commons or Westminster Hall, a parallel debating chamber. During these debates, the Government Minister concerned may elaborate further on the Government’s stance and opposition parties are given the opportunity to state their positions on the matter. The media may also report on these debates. The Committee held three debates during the Session 2003-04.
The Committee has the power to examine draft legislation and White Papers and by so doing has the potential to influence legislation. One of the Committee's previous inquiries looked into human reproductive technologies and the law addressed the question of whether the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act requires revision to take into account the scientific and medical advances made since the Act was drafted. The Department of Health welcomed the Committee’s inquiry and said the Committee’s Report was used to inform its review of the Act.
Meeting UK Energy and Climate Needs: The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage
Research Council Support for Knowledge Transfer
Watching the Directives: Scientific Advice on the EU Physical Agents (Electromagnetic Fields) Directive
Drug classification: making a hash of it?
Identity Card Technologies: Scientific Advice, Risk and Evidence
Scientific Advice, Risk and Evidence Based Policy Making
Strategic Science Provision in English Universities
Forensic Science on Trial
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee also undertakes inquiries relating to science and technology.
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology provides information to both the House of Commons and House of Lords on scientific matters.
www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_offices/post.cfm
The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee provides long-term liaison between Parliamentarians and scientific bodies, science-based industry and academia.
