11. Submissions on Behalf of the Government Office for Science by Mr Hill

Lady Hallett: Mr Hill, I gather you’d like to say a few words.

Mr Hill: Thank you, my Lady. I represent the Government Office for Science, which is headed by the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser. Among other things, the Government Office for Science provided secretariat support for SAGE. Very short submissions for your Ladyship, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to make them.

They are prompted by Mr Weatherby’s observation that it is helpful to identify where there is agreement between core participants at either end of a telescope, to borrow his metaphor. From the Government Office for Science’s perspective, one such area is the early involvement of core participants in discussions on expert evidence.

We recognise that it is unequivocally for your Ladyship to decide which areas are suitable for expert evidence and who is instructed to cover those areas. But we would welcome an early opportunity to contribute to the discussion that informs your Ladyship’s decisions. There are two reasons for this.

The first and most important is that we believe that we can help. The Government Office for Science has extensive knowledge of relevant areas of suitably qualified experts and of a wider academic landscape.

The second reason is that it will help further build confidence in the work of the Inquiry among all who participate in it.

Counsel to the Inquiry has said that the identification of experts has not been straightforward, for reasons that we can well understand, and he has also said that core participants will be provided with further information about expert evidence in due course. Our submission is that the sooner that is done, the greater the benefit will be for the Inquiry, both in terms of the practical help to be given and in terms of public confidence. And that is so, we say, particularly because of the demanding timetable that your Ladyship has placed on the Inquiry.

Unless I can assist further, those are the submissions I have.

Lady Hallett: No, thank you very much, Mr Hill, and thank you for the offer of assistance, and I will consider very carefully – as you say, a number of core participants have made a similar point, and so I will give it very careful consideration. Thank you.

Mr Hill: I’m grateful to you, my Lady.

Lady Hallett: Mr Keith.