Minister promises guidelines on independence of science advisers

Science minister Lord Drayson says the scientific community is right to be upset about the sacking of David Nutt, but defends the government's right to ignore scientists' adviceThe science minister, Lord Drayson, has committed the government to producing guidelines by Christmas to ensure the independence of its scientific advisers. The move comes after ministers faced days of criticism from senior scientists over the sacking of the government drugs adviser David Nutt."What's happened is that the dismissal of Prof Nutt and the circumstances around that has upset, rightly, the scientific community and led to a lot of concern," said Drayson. "The government understands the importance of independent academic advice."He said the events of the past few days had brought the concerns of scientists and their relationship with government to the top of the agenda. "If I had been consulted by the home secretary [before he sacked David Nutt], I would have...

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