3 March 2010
Poor communication between government officials and scientific advisers have hampered responses to emergencies and caused confusion, a parliamentary committee has said.
MPs on the science and technology committee looked at the government’s readiness for the swine flu and aerial volcanic ash emergencies.
They also examined space weather – erratic solar activity that could disrupt electronics – and cyber security.
They were amazed to learn that the government chief scientific adviser, Sir John Beddington, was not involved in drawing up national risk assessments.
The committee’s report Scientific adviceand evidence in emergencies, published last night, said it was ‘a serious concern’ that Beddington ‘had little or no input to the risk assessments that have taken place on severe weather’. They recommended that national risk assessments should not be signed off until he was satisfied that scientific evidence had been properly considered.
Chair Andrew Miller said: ‘The current approach smacks of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
‘Science is not something to reach for when a crisis happens, it must be integral to the whole planning process.’
The report also questioned why the risk to aviation from natural disasters was dropped from the national risk assessment process in 2009, a year before a volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded UK aircraft.
‘No explanation was provided [for this] and it appears there may have been breakdown of communication between the earth science community and government,’ the report said.
The committee called for both the membership and minutes of emergency scientific advisory groups should be made public, despite the risk that people would seize upon ‘worst-case’ predictions.
These groups, formed in response to emergencies should no longer ‘be given carte blanche to operate how they please simply because an emergency is occurring’.
