Technology foresight : first report. Volume II, Minutes of evidence and appendices / Science and Technology Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Technology foresight : first report. Volume II, Minutes of evidence and appendices / Science and Technology Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/204 (page 24)
    24 October 1995] [Continued © examined. Chairman 1. President of the Board of Trade, good afternoon, and you are most welcome. You are most welcome in your new capacity; you are most welcome because at the opening of your speech on Friday you gave us news that this Select Committee has a future, and we are very grateful to have that confirmation so firmly given at the first opportunity that occurred. And we welcome, too, our good colleague, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Mr Ian Taylor; we welcome, too, Sir John and Professor May, in his first appearance before the Committee, and you two are particularly welcome. (Mr Lang) Thank you very much, Chairman. Can I, in turn, express my satisfaction and pleasure at the opportunity to meet the Select Committee so relatively early in the tenure of my office as President of the Board of Trade, although I am conscious that the average life of the President in office has been not much more than 12 months in recent years. However, I am very pleased to have this chance to meet the Committee and also to have had the opportunity to do so against the background of last Friday’s debate, which I hope was a useful opportunity for the subject we are concerned with to be aired; and also against the background of—in my view at any rate, although the matter is, of course, in other hands as well as mine— that the Select Committee on Science and Technology should continue in place. And I am glad to be able to bring the Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Bob May, with me for the first time to the Committee; Sir John Cadogan you have seen before; and Ian Taylor, as Minister for Science & Technology, is well-known to you. 2. President, do you wish to actually say a few opening words, or should we proceed with the questioning? (Mr Lang) It might be helpful, Chairman, if I just said, at the outset, how I see the importance of Science and Technology in the context of the Department of Trade and Industry. 3. Please do. (Mr Lang) This is a change that took place at the same time as my appointment and I instinctively welcomed it because I did feel that there was a potential synergy between Science and the Department of Trade and Industry. I was immediately anxious to reassure the scientific world that the future of basic research would not be put at risk in this context, that I did not see it as a threat, and also that I was persuaded that there was no hidden agenda, and indeed there is none. The importance of basic research will continue, OST retains its discrete entity within the Department and I believe that, far from suffering by Science coming into DTI, the prospects for basic research, or blue skies research, are as good as ever they were. And, indeed, the need to get closer to market research, better aligned with industry, which is something that was identified in the White Paper and I think to which we would all subscribe, is something that should act aS a spur also to the future of basic research. So I believe that this is a good step forward. I noted that the former Chief Scientific Adviser, once he had left the position, wrote of the decision as being a “shrewd move’, to quote his words, and was entirely complimentary about it, and certainly it is my intention that that should be the case. 4. Right; well, thank you for those opening words. You will be aware that the transition, from the OST location in Cabinet Office to become, although a discreet and ring-fenced, part of the DTI has caused a considerable amount of controversy, and indeed this was one of the themes of last Friday’s debate, as you are well aware. (Mr Lang) Indeed. 5. Could I open the questioning, therefore, still seeking assurances. For example, in your very busy role, how much time can you give to Science and Technology as a singular part of your representation; and perhaps you might also combine that with how far you consider your role is to act as the advocate of Science and Technology in the Cabinet itself, can we have a little bit of assurance that this kind of aspect, this particular aspect of your role, will be undiminished? (Mr Lang) Yes, Chairman, I can certainly give the Committee that assurance. I do regard it as an important priority, in my role as President of the Board of Trade, to advance and to represent the interests of Science in Cabinet. As to how much time I can give to it, I will give as much time as I can and as much time as is necessary. I was particularly anxious to take part myself in the debate last Friday, although I do not yet feel myself fully up to speed on some of the detailed aspects of the overall range of Science activities. In that context, however, I am _ very comfortable indeed to have Ian Taylor as Minister for Science and Technology, ‘exclusively dedicated to those activities, and already coming from a background with considerable ministerial experience in some of those areas; and, of course, we have the two distinguished scientists on either side of us to constantly keep us up to speed on the importance of Science. The role of the Director General of Research Councils is entirely unchanged by the transfer of OST into DTI, and so indeed is the role of the Chief Scientific Adviser, whose remit runs right across Government, who has access to the Prime Minister, as well as to me, and who will, I am sure, pursue the role with vivid determination.