Whit Issue 2005 SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT UK - Best Place For Innovation Women In Science Crime Technology Bovine Tuberculosis Society for General Microbiology Fighting Infection 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. Contents Whit 2005 Volume 62 Number 2 A Welcome from the President 1 Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior Five Years of the Food Standards Agency 2 Opinion by Sir John Krebs FRS National Museum for Science & Industry 3 Opinion by Dr Lindsay Sharp Annual Luncheon of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee 5 Address by HRH The Princess Royal In this issue Lawson Soulsby especially welcomes From the Scene of Crime to the Courthouse 8 MPs elected to the 2005 Parliament and points Addresses to the P&SC by William Hughes, Gloria Laycock and Gary Pugh them to the Committee’s new website. John Krebs leaves the Food Standards Agency with The UK – Best Place in the World for Innovation 14 clear responsibilities for safety, but an uncertain Seminar jointly arranged by OST and P&SC role for nutrition. Lindsay Sharp’s National Fighting Infection 20 Museum of Science and Industry is committed to Janet Hurst and Faye Jones, Society for General Microbiology new scientific dialogue making sense of science and technology. HRH The Princess Royal, our Chemical Engineering on the Menu 22 Guest of Honour at the Annual Lunch, provides Professor Colin Grant encouragement to women in science and engineering thus also helping to provide more Eating with the P and S 24 science and maths teachers. William Hughes Tam Dalyell wants serious organised crime put out of Bovine Tuberculosis – Towards a Science Based Control Strategy 25 business, Gloria Laycock needs a new scientific John Bourne agency promoting crime prevention. Gary Pugh’s forensic databases are the best in the world and House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology 29 paramount in the investigation and reduction of House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee 31 crime. Keith O’Nions distributes the Chancellor’s £10 billion for science and innovation at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology 32 Science Week Seminar, Catherine Beech’s early House of Commons Library 33 stage companies need business to help them pull through. Patrick McDonald joins up government Letter to the Editor 33 departments to make them a more demanding Reports on Meetings 34 customer for technology. Ian Diamond’s Parliamentary and Scientific Committee News 35 knowledge networks and partnerships underpin commercial applications. Janet Hurst’s microbes Debates and Selected Parliamentary Questions and Answers 35 will inherit the earth, but in the mean time Digest of Parliamentary Debates, Questions and Answers 39 require constant vigilance. Colin Grant’s chemical engineers help solve practical problems. John Euro-News 48 Bourne finds that 60% of post FMD TB is due to European Union Digest 49 cattle movement, not badgers. Tam Dalyell finally says goodbye after 43 years as a "Committee Science Directory 51 Regular" – and he will be very much missed. Science Diary 60 Dr Douglas Naysmith MP Chairman, Editorial Board, Front cover picture: Colour TEM of MRSA: resistant Staphylococcus bacteria Science in Parliament (Credit: Dr Kari Lounatmaa/Science Photo Library) ISSN 0263-6271 WELCOME A Welcome from the President The Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior t is with very great pleasure that on matters of common scientific by all concerned if a satisfactory I take this opportunity to interest. These may be very long term outcome is to be Iwelcome back existing members complex issues that involve obtained. Indeed the future of the Parliamentary and Scientific Parliamentarians working with our existence of mankind on this planet Committee to the new Parliament member organisations in the in a state that we could regard as of 2005, and on this special national, European or international civilised is the fundamental issue at occasion I particularly wish to interest. stake here. welcome newly elected We live in exciting times when the The Officers and Staff of the Parliamentarians, who may be opportunities for scientific and Committee have planned an taking their seats in Parliament for technical achievements are excellent programme of meetings in the very first time. This Committee powerful drivers for change that Parliament and site visits with the has been serving the needs of can have major impacts on our climax being our Annual Lunch each Parliamentarians and our many lifestyle and wellbeing, both now year at the Savoy. Please take a look vitally important and and for the foreseeable future. at our new website where you will internationally recognised member Parliamentarians therefore play a find this and much more information organisations for over 65 years. We vital and ever-increasing role in about the Committee, including are still going strong by adapting to deciding on science-based policy online access to the four preceding the ever changing needs of our issues today that may have impacts issues of Science in Parliament. membership, while encouraging far beyond the life of the current Please contact Mrs Annabel Lloyd, informed debate on matters of Parliament. An important example our Administrative Secretary, if you scientific importance that affect the of this is Climate Change for which should require any help in obtaining whole nation. We also consider a much better understanding of the the current password that is essential that it is particularly important to very complex interactions of in order to obtain access to all the help facilitate cross-party discussion science and technology is needed resources available to you on this site. Launch of the Committee’s New Website on Monday 23 May 2005 http://www.scienceinparliament.org.uk he Council have approved the launch of a new website designed primarily for the benefit of members but also to inform non-members about meetings and publications of the Committee. The name of the new Twebsite has been chosen to reflect the interest in and importance of our journal, Science in Parliament, both to the membership and to non-members. The previous website has also been modified to divert readers directly to the new site. It is intended to help facilitate much better access to and a wider readership of our journal, especially by non-members who can now purchase publications through the website. In addition, all our subscribers will continue to receive hard copy issues of Science in Parliament as before. Full access to all the facilities on the site is accessible only to Members and to all Parliamentarians, who will need to contact Mrs Annabel Lloyd in the office to obtain a password, if they have not already received one. Further news about the Committee’s new website is available on page 35. Science in Parliament Vol 62 No 2 Whit 2005 1 OPINION Five years of the Food Standards Agency Sir John Krebs FRS he Food Standards Agency recommendations, all of which the (FSA) was set up as a "force Board has accepted, of ways to Tfor change" in the White improve in the future. Paper that created it five years ago. One key promise was to be The "old climate of secrecy and completely open about decision- suspicion" was replaced by making. Since the start, every By discussing the risks and "modern, open arrangements, board meeting at which food policy uncertainties with a broad range of which will help to command has been discussed and decided has individuals and organisations with confidence." At the end of my been held in public. Typically, different perspectives, the FSA has period as Chairman of this new UK between 50 and 100 observers improved its understanding of wide, non-ministerial government attend in person, and at my last acceptable risk and therefore of department, what progress had the meeting as Chairman, held in ways of managing uncertainty. Agency made? Edinburgh in March, a further 1,800 Experience has shown that this It is notoriously difficult to measure watched us on the live web-cast. open and inclusive way of making trust and confidence, but several Another promise was that we would decisions works better than the recent surveys suggest that the be open and honest about risk and older approach of "decide, Agency has, as a result of both its uncertainty. I have always said "life announce and defend". actions and its way of doing is not risk free" and, in this regard, While most people see a clear role business, begun to build food is no different from crossing for government and for regulators in confidence. For instance, a 2003 the road or getting out of bed. the area of food safety, there is Norwegian study found public In risk assessment, top quality much less agreement about who – confidence in food safety to be the science (including social sciences) is individuals, parents, the authorities highest of six EU member states essential, and the Agency gets much – should take responsibility for (Figure 1) and the Agency’s own of its expert advice from nine tackling the risks from poor diet. annual surveys of consumer independent scientific advisory Nutrition is part of the Agency’s attitudes shows that trust in the FSA committees populated by leading remit, but to what extent should it has increased (Figure 2).