The UK government’s chief scientific adviser has hinted at the importance of academia’s independence from the government, stating that it was important to remind politicians about the Haldane principle.
Referring to the century-old convention that ministers can set the broad direction of research but should not intervene directly on what is funded, with decisions on quality left to expert peer review, Dame Angela McLean told an audience at the Science Museum that the potential breaching of this principle “is a worry”.
“We need to pay attention and sometimes remind people of the Haldane principle,” said Dame Angela in answer to a question that followed the Campaign for Science and Engineering’s annual lecture on 21 November.
The University of Oxford mathematical biology professor, who succeeded Sir Patrick Vallance as the country’s top scientific adviser in April, also reflected on how increased attention from ministers on science was a “double-edged sword”.
Her comments – while not directed at any minister in particular – come after the country’s main science funder, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), faced extraordinary public criticism from the science secretary, Michelle Donelan, who demanded the immediate abolition of a Research England diversity panel over what she called “extremist” social media posts by some of its members. The posts and retweets about pro-Palestinian protests were made after last month’s massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas.
UKRI’s chief executive, Dame Ottoline Leyser, has suspended the recently created body pending an investigation, with the episode sparking a major row with academia over free speech and the independence of science funding bodies from government.
Ms Donelan has also attacked what she called the “slow creep of wokeism” into scholarship and has ordered a review into the use of sex and gender questions in research, claiming that scientists are being “told by university bureaucrats that they cannot ask legitimate research questions about biological sex”.
At the Case event, Dame Angela also said the government’s science and technology policy has been “very focused on artificial intelligence this year” – particularly in the lead-up to the international conference on AI safety held at Bletchley Park this month, on which it did “a very good job”.
“There is no question about that,” said Dame Angela on that focus, adding: “I agree that it needs to broaden out to all kinds of science and technology.”
Dame Angela has recently hit the headlines after private WhatsApp messages disclosed to the Covid public inquiry showed that she had described Rishi Sunak as “Dr Death” because of the then-chancellor’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme to encourage restaurant dining, which was not approved by scientific advisers before its announcement.
Dame Angela did not make any comments about Downing Street’s handling of the pandemic, but described some of the limitations imposed on her by her recent roles.
“Some of my answers might sound evasive, and that is because of the job that I hold – there are things I can say behind closed doors that I cannot say in public,” she said.
“Please remember we are advisers – we cannot force the way we think things ought to go. We may not like it, but that is the way it goes.”
On the difficulties of advising Whitehall departments, Dame Angela said there was “straightforward two cultures stuff” in which “unbelievably clever” civil servants disliked looking at graphs and numbers in the same way that scientists relished seeing such materials.
“They hate looking at graphs – it gives them pain,” she said.
In addition, Dame Angela also reflected on the time pressures faced by ministers, stating they usually had about three minutes to make decisions based on evidence presented to them.
“Ministers spend minutes on extremely important decisions, and then move on to other extremely important decisions,” she said.
