Spring 2006 SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT Complementary and Alternative Medicine The Precautionary Principle The Green Revolution SET Helping Africa 75th Anniversary of British Pharmacological Society The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee http://www.scienceinparliament.org.uk SCIENCE IN Science in Parliament has two main objectives: a) to inform the scientific and industrial communities PARLIAMENT of activities within Parliament of a scientific nature The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. and of the progress of relevant legislation; The Committee is an Associate Parliamentary Group b) to keep Members of Parliament abreast of members of both Houses of Parliament and British members of the European Parliament, representatives of scientific affairs. of scientific and technical institutions, industrial organisations and universities. Martin Rees notes the low participation in science by 16 and 17 year-olds and reductions in A-level physics, chemistry and maths. Deirdre Hutton presents a Science Contents Strategy for the Food Standards Agency. Mark Walport welcomes a vibrant research Spring 2006 Volume 63 Number 1 environment protected by risk management. Robert Souhami attacks the confused legal Keeping UK Science world class 1 and regulatory guidance that is stifling the Opinion by Lord Rees of Ludlow PRS use of electronic personal health care records Opinion by Dr Brian Iddon MP 2 in NHS research. Information for Health 2 Ursula Roos Opinion by Dr Mark Walport promotes UK- Taking a Risk 4 German bilateral Opinion by Dame Deirdre Hutton CBE collaboration especially in climate Personal data for Public Good 5 change and energy. Professor Robert Souhami John Walton Science and Innovation in Germany 7 recommends that Complementary and Alternative Medicine: should it be provided on the NHS? 8 doctors refer Addresses to the P&SC by Lord Walton of Detchant, patients for CAM Professor Stephen Holgate and David Tredinnick MP therapy on the NHS and Stephen Holgate encourages integrated From the Green to the Gene Revolution – a 21st Century Challenge 14 health care using the science and art of Address to the P&SC by Dr Norman E Borlaug medicine while David Tredinnick promotes Risk Management – should the Precautionary Principle be replaced complementary medicine from both personal by risk-related analysis for individual new technologies? 16 and public viewpoints. Norman Borlaug’s Addresses to the P&SC by Professor Susan Owens, plant breeding research provides "a Sir Colin Berry and Professor Ragnar Löfstedt temporary success in man’s war against The Importance of Science, Engineering and Technology to a sustainable hunger and deprivation" and a breathing economy on the African continent 22 space in which to deal with the "population Addresses to the P&SC by Sir Crispin Tickell, Professor Frank Rijsberman, monster". Sue Owens describes the Professor Richard Carter and Professor Sir Gordon Conway evolution of the precautionary principle (PP) in the RCEP while Colin Berry describes Pharmacology: what is it and how is it important to the Health erratic, arbitrary and non-scientific and Wealth of the UK? 30 applications of the PP, and Ragnar Lofstedt C Page, R Hill, J Buckingham and G Henderson traces the PP from Swedish origins, but Visualising the Emotions of Living Kidney Donation 32 predicts that the cost of regulation will Hurricanes, Typhoons and Tropical Cyclones 34 outweigh the benefits. Crispin Tickell Professor Paul Hardaker concludes that the most sustainable action possible is to help Africans to help House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee 36 themselves and Frank Rijsberman Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology 37 recommends investment in water, while House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology 39 Richard Carter considers that Africa is in House of Commons Library 40 need of support that exceeds even the most imaginative that science and technology can Book Review: Not in our Back Yard 41 deliver, and Gordon Conway makes water Letter to the Editor 42 and sanitation targets a priority for DFID. Debates and Selected Parliamentary Questions and Answers 42 The British Pharmacological Society celebrates its 75th birthday. Novartis Digest of Parliamentary Debates, Questions and Answers 46 Pharmaceuticals promote living donation of Euro-News 55 kidneys. Paul Hardaker says hurricanes have European Union Digest 56 increased in intensity over the last 30 years. Science Directory 59 Dr Brian Iddon MP Science Diary 68 Chairman, Editorial Board Science in Parliament ISSN 0263-6271 Image on front cover: Cross-section of an artery labelled for potassium channels (red), with elastic wall (green) and cell nuclei (blue) shown. Dr Matthew Burnham and Professor Arthur Weston, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester OPINION Keeping UK Science world class Lord Rees of Ludlow PRS cience, engineering and 12.6% and 21.5% respectively. Not technology make ever more all of the sciences have shown a Spervasive contributions to our downwards trend, with entries in Much public money has been lives. Science and its applications biology rising by 15.8%, and invested in science in recent years, can improve the quality of life and increases in other newer subjects but the government-financed the prosperity in this and every such as computing. It is not clear proportion of gross expenditure on nation; they also confront us with a how the performance of UK research and development in the range of new risks, and difficult students currently compares with UK, as a proportion of GDP, in policy issues. The UK is an those in other countries, but 2003 was 0.59%. This was well international leader in science, as hopefully the Government will be below the OECD and EU-25 the annual statistics published by successful in persuading enough averages, and placed us 16th in the the Office of Science and English schools to be included in an OECD league table. Industry- Technology illustrate. On most international comparison exercise financed gross expenditure on measures of productivity and this year to provide representative research and development, as a impact, this country is second to figures. proportion of GDP, in 2003 was the world leader, the United States. Clearly if our universities and 0.83%, also below the OECD and But two worrying trends threaten to businesses are to be internationally EU-25 averages and producing a undermine our position in the competitive in the physical sciences, ranking of 17th in the OECD. world league of science: declining we will need to ensure sufficient Recognising our poor performance, popularity of chemistry, maths and numbers of talented young people the Government’s 10-year physics among A-level students, and emerge from our schools with framework for science and relatively low levels of public and career ambitions and qualifications innovation has set an ambitious private investment in research and in those disciplines. I hope that the target of raising UK gross development. new GCSE curriculum for science, expenditure on research and Recent surveys show that the which will be introduced next development to 2.5% of GDP by United Kingdom compares well September, will encourage more 2014. This target can only be with other countries in terms of pupils to study the sciences and achieved if there is sustained participation and performance in mathematics at A-level. But further investment by both the public and science education at school level up measures will be needed, such as private sector. to the age of 16. But after the age of tackling the shortages of suitably Science, engineering and technology 16, our record appears to qualified teachers in those subjects. provide the base for the economic deteriorate. We have one of the The scientific community, the performance of the UK and its lowest participation rates in Government and our schools will competitors in the international education for 16 and 17 year-olds need to work together if the community. The UK has an (ahead only of Italy among the G7 downward trends are to be outstanding track record in world nations). And entries in chemistry, reversed. science. We must maintain our physics, biology and mathematics Ensuring the flow of well-qualified momentum: success should breed accounted for only 22.9% of A-level scientists and engineers into the further success; we need to become entries in all subjects by students in workforce is also a key part of still more successful in attracting England, Wales and Northern tackling the other weakness in the and nurturing mobile talent. But Ireland in 2005. UK’s performance in science, there are now some fundamental What is more, participation rates in engineering and technology: the weaknesses which could undermine the sciences and mathematics have amount invested in research and our position. It is up to policy- been deteriorating: they accounted development. UK gross expenditure makers and the science community for 30.0% of all A-level entries in on research and development in to see that these problems are 1991. Between 1991 and 2005, the 2003 was equivalent to 1.89% of tackled so that the UK in the future total number of A-level entries in all gross domestic product. This figure can continue to reap the benefits of subjects increased by 12.1%. But was lower than in the early 1990s being a world leader in science, in over that period, the number of and puts the UK in 14th place in an era when we find growing entries in physics, chemistry and the international league table of competition from the Far East, as mathematics declined by 35.2%, OECD members. well as from across the Atlantic. Lord Rees of Ludlow is President of the Royal Society, the UK national academy of science. Science in Parliament Vol 63 No 1 Spring 2006 1 OPINION Dr Brian Iddon BSc, PhD, DSc (Hull), FRSC, CChem, MP Chairman of the Editorial/Management Board of Science in Parliament.