Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

British MPs have cancelled a new select committee on science – due to
a lack of interest. Despite being empowered to set up a subcommittee on
science and technology last July, the Education, Science and Arts Select
Committee is still one MP short and it is now unlikely to inaugurate the
science and technology subcommittee before the General Election.

‘It is very disappointing,’ says Gerard Vaughan, chairman of the Parliamentary
and Scientific Committee and a member of the education committee. ‘It just
shows that my fellow MPs have minimal interest in science.’

There are 650 MPs in the House of Commons. The science and technology
committee requires just four members willing to attend, at most, four meetings
a month. However, as a subcommittee, its members must also sit on the education
committee – another four meetings. Existing members of the education committee,
who are mainly ex-headteachers, are unwilling to sit on the science committee.
Equally, the few MPs interested in science are unwilling to sit in on education
meetings. The result is a stalemate, with the education committee one MP
short of its full complement of 13 and unable to get the science committee
going until it is up to strength.

‘There is this great apathy,’ says Vaughan. ‘Very few people with
a scientific background even enter the House of Commons.’

Since 1979 the education select committee has conducted just three inquiries
into scientific matters. In 1981 the MPs looked at biotechnology, in 1984
they looked at the government’s science budget and last year they examined
the European dimension of science policy.

By comparison, the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Science and Technology
is widely respected for its work and has frequently embarrassed the government
with detailed and critical reports. The MPs’ failure has left the peers
carrying out the only effective parliamentary scrutiny of government science
policy.