Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology - History

History

In 2009 POST celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special conference on "Images of the Future". The keynote participants were the Hon. Bart Gordon, Chair of the US House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology and Dr Jim Dator of the University of Hawaii Futures Research Centre.

Since 1939, a group of MPs and peers interested in science and technology, through the first parliamentary "All Party Group" - the UK Parliamentary and Scientific Committee had encouraged UK Parliamentarians to explore the implications of scientific developments for society and public policy, but as the UK economy became more dependent on technological progress, and the negative effects of technology (especially on the environment) became more apparent, it was felt that UK Parliament needed its own resources on such issues. Parliamentarians not only required access to knowledge and insights into the implications of technology for their constituents and society, but also needed to exercise their scrutiny functions over legislation and administration. This thinking was also influenced by the fact that specialised parliamentary science and technology organisations already existed overseas.

P&S members (Sir Ian Lloyd MP, Sir Trevor Skeet MP, Sir Gerry Vaughan MP, Lords Kennet, Gregson and Flowers among others) visited already established organisations in the US, Germany and France, and this reinforced their view that modern Parliaments needed their own ‘intelligence’ on science and technology-related issues. Initially they asked the then Thatcher government to fund such services at Westminster but were asked first to demonstrate a real need. This led to the P&S creating a charitable foundation to raise funds from P&S members; the reaction was sufficiently positive to be able to recruit a Director, Professor Michael Norton, on 1 April 1989 and POST was established.

POST began with a modest staff of the Director and a secretary and was supported by fundraising. By 1992, POST was attracting more resources and had recruited 3 specialist science advisers and begun its fellowship programme with the UK research councils. In 1992 the House of Commons Information Committee, later supported by the House of Lords, recommended that Parliament should fund POST for 3 years, and a subsequent review in 1995 extended this for a further 5 years. This was the result of POST demonstrating real interest and demand from MPs and peers. From 1997 the chair of the POST board was appointed by government Whips. Previous chairs have been Dr Ian Gibson MP 1997-2001, Dr Phyllis Starkey MP 2001-2005, and Dr Ashok Kumar MP 2005-2010. In 1998 Professor David Cope took over as Director of POST. In 2001 both Houses decided that POST should be established as a permanent bicameral institution.