Julian Huppert told a session at Liberal Democrat conference that “unfortunately not all civil servants get ‘evidence-based’” and that Whitehall policy-makers should adopt a more scientific approach when designing policies; making more use of pilots, studies and statistics.
Mr Huppert, who sits on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, as well as his party’s influential Federal Policy Committee, told the fringe that an evidence-based approach would save money as “it is far cheaper to do something that works than that doesn’t work”.
He explained that the prevalence of economists in the civil service meant there were many people who “do believe in evidence”, but explained that there “isn’t the same level of support for the scientific mind-set and approach”. “Science is still seen very much as a peripheral thing within the civil service,” he added.
Mr Huppert however welcomed the Government’s newly-created ‘What Works’ centres, which provide independent evidence to inform decision making in key policy areas. He recommended that chief scientific advisors should be “much more involved [in policy-making]” in order to achieve more evidence-based policy.
His views were echoed by Baroness Margaret Sharp, a former civil servant, who said that too many civil servants are “courteous”, find out what their minister wants and then “try to produce the evidence to help that minister”.
This, she said, is “unfortunate” calling for “more people who will say 'boo' to their ministers on occasions”.
Politicians as well as civil servants should have a “much greater awareness of what’s going on in academia”, she said, adding that she is “rather appalled at “how little use we make of all the research that's out there, even in our select committees”.
She also said that many politicians and top officials “come with an inbuilt prejudice about what they think works and what doesn’t”, and “then appoint academic advisers who share their prejudices” - a trend she said was particularly prevalent in the Department for Education.
Prateek Buch, director of Social Liberal Forum, which represents the centre-left of the Liberal Democrats, told the session that holding people to account by asking what evidence their decisions are based on is a “very powerful tool”.