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Parliamentary proceeding

Reference

462 c1205-49

Session

2006-07

Department

Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Scientific advice, risk and evidence: how government handles them. Science and Technology Select Committee seventh report, in two volumes, with proceedings, evidence (HC 900 i, vi, ix, x and xii not printed separately) and appendices.
Thursday, 26 October 2006
Parliamentary committees
House of Commons

Scientific advice, risk and evidence based policy making. Science and Technology Select Committee first special report - government response to the Committee's seventh report of session 2005-06 (HC 900).
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
Parliamentary committees
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Angela Watkinson | 462 c1226 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for being generous and giving way again. Does he recognise that the lay publi...

Evan Harris | 462 c1235 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has detailed knowledge of that subject, and is probably the leading expert on it ...

Show all contributions (60)

Evan Harris | 462 c1234-5 (Link to this contribution) I certainly agree with the hon. Gentleman about the health risks of cannabis, but the classification...

Brian Iddon | 462 c1235 (Link to this contribution) Is it not important that any evidence that is relied on has been peer reviewed? Some years ago, I wa...

Evan Harris | 462 c1233-4 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the Minister to his new brief. I think he will find it very exciting, and I look forward t...

Bill Wiggin | 462 c1234 (Link to this contribution) That is a good example of the need to be careful about the quality of scientific advice. What concer...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1230 (Link to this contribution) Can my hon. Friend enlighten me about the number of scientists or outside groups that advised the Go...

Brian Iddon | 462 c1230-3 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend asks me a difficult question, which I cannot answer, but I am sure that the advice ca...

Brian Iddon | 462 c1227-30 (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Mr. Taylor). I also congratul...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1226-7 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right that food scares can create shifts in the market. When I was a Minister, I h...

Ian Pearson | 462 c1247-9 (Link to this contribution) The programme is going on at the moment; it will be fully evaluated, and no doubt all the findings w...

Bill Wiggin | 462 c1242 (Link to this contribution) I do not agree; there is a difference between the trust one places in NGOs and the trust that one is...

Ian Pearson | 462 c1242-7 (Link to this contribution) I begin by thanking all the Members who expressed their good wishes to me in my new role as Minister...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1235 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that the ability to repeat data is an essential aspect of science?...

Evan Harris | 462 c1235-6 (Link to this contribution) I was going to say that that is part of the nature of science: the situation is never clear because ...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1236 (Link to this contribution) For the avoidance of ambiguity, will the hon. Gentleman confirm that he is referring to government w...

Evan Harris | 462 c1236-9 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, I am happy to do so. We in this House benefit from having the experience of Members, such as...

Bill Wiggin | 462 c1239 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the Minister to his new role. I shall endeavour to keep my comments brief, as I represent ...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1239 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the report was the Krebs report, and that the culling was based o...

Bill Wiggin | 462 c1239-41 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right: the initial report was on the Krebs trials, which was followed by the i...

Evan Harris | 462 c1241-2 (Link to this contribution) I do not share the hon. Gentleman’s view about Lord Sainsbury, but the allegation, ““You would say t...

Evan Harris | 462 c1247 (Link to this contribution) The Minister mentions the success of the current programme. Can he say—he might not be able to do so...

Brian Iddon | 462 c1219 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend find it rather strange that Galileo was prevented from making progress by the re...

Baroness Browning | 462 c1220 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that the opposition to a scientific development, particular...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1219-20 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for that. I am very aware of that, given that I serve on the Joint Committee ...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1222-3 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to be able to speak in this debate. I start by congratulating the Science and Technol...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1220-2 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Lady. That is another truism. Many people are put under pressure subtly or quite op...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1223-5 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree, and that applies not just when it appears that fairly disreputable people in the s...

Angela Watkinson | 462 c1223 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the vast majority of the general public are laymen in scientific term...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1225-6 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, but in some ways people are unpredictable in what they deter...

Baroness Browning | 462 c1225 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that educating the lay public is not simply about putting complex scientif...

Angela Watkinson | 462 c1218 (Link to this contribution) Is it not the case that eminent scientists, particularly research scientists, often come up with dia...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1218-9 (Link to this contribution) I share the hon. Lady’s sentiments entirely. I know eminent virologists who do not believe that AIDS...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1216 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. It was not just the scientists in the British media who purv...

Brian Iddon | 462 c1216 (Link to this contribution) Have not the British media damaged the British industry? Compared with the American, Chinese and Ind...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1216 (Link to this contribution) I was a member of the John Innes Centre council at the time, and I remember a dinner party where Der...

Evan Harris | 462 c1215 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman mentions the media, and I want to question whether he is right to say that the pr...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1218 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for that. I thought for one second that he was about to talk about Fairtrade ...

Andrew Miller | 462 c1218 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend will be interested to know that a couple of weeks ago I hosted a meeting in the Membe...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1216-8 (Link to this contribution) People’s hands must be rather clean. Of course, there are mechanisms for people working in this plac...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1215 (Link to this contribution) My answer would be that there are scientists and there are scientists. There are scientists who work...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1215 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman, and I hope to say a little more about how we might addre...

Baroness Browning | 462 c1215 (Link to this contribution) As someone who, in a former existence, licensed the first GM food in this country, I recall being gi...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1213-4 (Link to this contribution) This is not an easy area and the Committee is not suggesting that. Our conclusion was that it is imp...

Andrew Miller | 462 c1213 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making an extremely good point. Did his Committee look at the fact that the pu...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1215 (Link to this contribution) As an amateur scientist—the hon. Gentleman is a professional—I sometimes get frustrated when I have ...

Ian Gibson | 462 c1214-5 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the Minister of State, Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, the hon. Me...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1208-10 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes two excellent points. In respect of departmental chief scientific advisers,...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1210-3 (Link to this contribution) I was not in any way trying to make a political point; I was merely musing that there had been a hug...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1210 (Link to this contribution) I am intervening because I was the Science Minister who took the decision that we should change the ...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1207 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. On two occasions, the Science and Technology Commit...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1207 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady makes a wholly valid point. I pay tribute to organisations such as Sense about Science...

Andrew Miller | 462 c1207-8 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee on his work. I was particularly ...

Bill Wiggin | 462 c1207 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that in order to qualify the science, particularly on avian influenza,...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1206-7 (Link to this contribution) Given that the new Department was set up only last week, it behoves all of us to have a little patie...

Ian Taylor | 462 c1206 (Link to this contribution) I am slightly confused. The hon. Gentleman began by welcoming the new Department, yet his subsequent...

Lord Willis of Knaresborough | 462 c1205-6 (Link to this contribution) May I begin by welcoming the Minister of State, Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, t...

Bill Wiggin | 462 c1216 (Link to this contribution) I am curious about the issue, because obviously, I was not part of the debate at the time. When a Mi...

Speaker | 462 c1227 (Link to this contribution) Order. Before I call the hon. Member for Bolton, South-East (Dr. Iddon), perhaps I should remind the...

Baroness Browning | 462 c1207 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that, however good the science and however much it is evide...

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