Petition Require relevant qualifications for membership of some committees

Service on the Health and Science and Technology Committees should have, as a pre-requisite, an appropriate scientific or medical background.

Parliament has historically been short of doctors, engineers and scientists, and that makes the role of the these Committees in assessing evidence on behalf of Parliament especially important.

It is proper that Parliament may make consider philosophical as well as scientific factors (as is the case with drugs policy) but this requires that the Committees advise fearlessly and impartially on the scientific consensus.

This role requires experience and training in assessing scientific evidence and placing personal biases to one side in doing so. The presence of individuals who have no scientific background and hold patently unscientific views, weakens the committees, brings them into disrepute, and jeopardises their ability to properly exercise their required role.