Evidence based policy making – how can government be an intelligent user of science?

How can government be an intelligent user of science? Dr Miles Parker, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser for Defra, will argue for a fundamental change in the way in which Whitehall and Westminster approach evidence-based policy making.

This lecture has been organised in association with the Darwin College Green Committee, the Centre for Science and Policy, and 4CMR.

From the controversy surrounding the advice and eventual dismissal of the Chairman of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to waning confidence in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over melting rates of Himalayan glaciers evidence-based policy making has recently been a particularly polarising media issue. Dr Parker's lecture will take a step back and examine what evidence-based policy making really means.

Agenda

5pm: Doors open

5.15pm -6pm: Dr Miles Parker (Room 1 - Land Economy Mill Lane Lecture Rooms)

6pm - 6.45pm: Questions and Answers

Abstract

This question was addressed by the Central Policy Review Staff – Edward Heath's “Think Tank” - in the early 1970s. The resulting Rothschild Report named after its Chairman established the paradigm for relations between government policy makers and the science community to this day. My thesis is that Rothschild's ideas were fundamentally erroneous. I will explore the report's conclusions their application and their subsequent modification (including the impact of the Phillips Inquiry) and present an alternative approach and what it would mean for Government and for academia.