RSSeNEWS to be determined...

RSS president, David Hand, and vice-president, Sheila Bird, are among the senior scientists and scientific advisers who have issued a statement in response to the controversy following the sacking of Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The Principles for the Treatment of Independent Scientific Advice sets out to Government three principles: academic freedom, independence of operation and proper consideration of advice.

Over the last few days, intense discussions in the scientific community have given rise to this statement, which seeks affirmation of those principles from Government. It has already attracted the support of a number of Chairs and other members of independent Scientific Advisory Committees, senior scientists, former Government Chief Scientists, and the heads of academic and research bodies. The principles were transmitted to Government yesterday.

Commenting, Professor Colin Blakemore FRS, a current Scientific Advisory Committee Chair and former Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, who was one of the drafters of the statement, said:

“The priority now must be to rebuild the confidence of the scientific community in the way the Government, and indeed the Opposition parties, treat scientific advice and those who provide it. If the Government can sign up to this statement, which essentially summarises commitments that have been made in the past, I hope that we can press the ‘reset’ button on the relationship.”

 Tracey Brown, Managing Director of Sense About Science, which is hosting the principles online, said:

“These principles promote much-needed clarity about what “independent scientific advice” means. In order for this huge unpaid effort from the scientific community to continue, everyone needs to be clear that independent scientific advice can be neither a substitute for policy nor subject to policy.”

Dr Evan Harris MP, a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee, who proposed the use of such a statement as a potential solution to the crisis of confidence caused by what he described as the deeply unfair treatment of Prof Nutt, said:

“The discontent in the scientific community about the treatment of David Nutt goes way beyond the members of the ACMD. It is necessary that the Government reflects on the recent Select Committee report, which covers many of the issues set out in the statement in order to win back the full confidence of their unpaid independent expert advisers.”