Former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance – now installed as a minister in the new Labour government – has said he would not have accepted a political posting under the last Conservative administration.
Vallance, who was last month given a peerage and appointed as a minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said he had been happy to work for political leaders of any hue as a civil servant but accepting a political role was different.
"That’s the role of the civil service," he told the Guardian. "But as a minister, obviously, you then have [a] political angle to that as well, and that adds a layer of complexity. You can’t be a minister and not part of a political system, and that’s different."
Asked if he would have taken up an offer of a ministerial posting if one had been made by former PM Rishi Sunak, Vallance replied: "I wouldn’t have done, no."
Vallance became a household name across the nation through his appearances at daily Downing Street briefings during the Coronavirus pandemic. He stepped down as chief scientific adviser in April last year at the end of his five-year term of office.
His detailed private-diary entries related to his experiences at the heart of government during the pandemic have been a mainstay of coverage of the public inquiry into the UK's handling of the crisis. One notorious example found Vallance describing Downing Street as "chaos as usual" in one 2020 diary entry.
Perhaps more damningly for a government that routinely claimed to be "following the science", Vallance observed it was "abundantly clear" during a meeting on social distancing that no-one in No.10 or the Cabinet Office had taken the time to understand the science advice provided.
The new minister of state for science, research and innovation this week said that his main concern had been about science not being integrated into the system.
"I am not sure I was individually critical of what ministers were doing,” Vallance said. “What I said was I thought the government as a whole didn’t have a mechanism well enough developed to take science and technology into all the places it needs to be, because I can’t think of a single area of policy or operations where science technology or engineering wouldn’t make a difference."
UKRI and Innovate UK in recruitment drive
Vallance's comments come as recruitment for the next chief executive of UK Research and Investment reopens after the process was paused earlier in the year because of the general election.
Current chief exec Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser is due to step down from the helm of the non-departmental public body funded by DSIT when her five-year term ends in June next year.
The relaunched campaign says the organisation is seeking a "visionary leader who can lead UKRI through significant organisational changes".
It says UKRI, which is the nation's largest public research funder and has 8,000 staff, "needs to be a light-touch, efficient, agile, and outcome-focused organisation capable of deploying a range of funding models through and across its component parts".
The advertisement says the successful candidate could come from research-and-development intensive industries or the university and charitable research sectors, however it specifies that a "deep understanding" of the research-and-investment system is required.
The campaign, which is being handled by headhunting firm Saxton Bampfylde, does not specify a salary range for the chief exec role. According to UKRI's 2023-24 annual report and accounts, Leyser's salary for the year was bracketed at £230,000-£235,000. She also received a bonus of £10,000-£15,000 and pension benefits of £10,000.
DSIT has also opened the search for a new executive chair for Innovate UK, which is part of UKRI and supports the UK’s most innovative businesses to grow. They will replace current Innovate UK chief executive Indro Mukerjee.
Saxton Bampfylde is also handing the process for the department. It did not give a salary indication for the Innovate UK role, however Mukerjee's remuneration package for 2023-24 was bracketed at £190,000-£195,000 with pension benefits of £29,000.
Vallance said Leyser would leave "big shoes to fill" at UKRI and that her help in continuing to drive forward the government's ambitions for science and innovation over the next 10 months would be "invaluable".
He described outgoing Innovate UK boss Muckerjee as "excellent" and said the organisation was in need of a similarly gifted successor.
The UKRI role is open to applications until midday on 30 September; the Innovate UK role is open to applications until midday on 7 October.