Former Government adviser forms new lockdown advice committee

Sir David King
AFP/Getty Images
Kit Heren3 May 2020

A former top Government adviser has launched a group that will offer coronavirus advice as an alternative from the official Government committee.

Sir David King, who was chief scientific adviser under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said he set up the group in response to what he saw as "a lack of transparency coming from the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage)."

The 12-member group will be looking into problems like future social distancing measures and contact tracing for people who are confirmed to have coronavirus.

The committee will give its advice for the first time on Monday at 4pm, around the same time as the daily Government press briefing.

Sir Patrick Vallance, current chief scientific adviser and Sage committee member 
10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty

Sir David told the Sunday Times that the new committee will be made up of scientific experts from the UK and abroad.

Concerns emerged last week about the membership of Sage, after the Guardian revealed that government adviser Dominic Cummings and his aide had been at several meetings.

Sir David said at the time: "Dominic Cummings has the ear of the prime minister, so who is informing the prime minister about scientific advice?”, the Guardian reported.

He added: “Is it Cummings or is it the chief scientific adviser? Suddenly you get a confusion.

“There must be a single voice taking the view of the scientific community to the prime minister, that is the most important thing.”

Government adviser Dominic Cummings 
REUTERS

Sir David unveiled the new group in the Sunday Times and said that being open was the most important thing for scientists and the Government in dealing with coronavirus.

He added: “I am not at all critical of the scientists who are putting advice before the Government … but because there is no transparency the Government can say they are following scientific advice but we don’t know that they are.”

On Mr Cummings’ attendance at the meetings, he said: “Cummings is an adviser to the prime minister and the chief scientific adviser is an adviser to the prime minister.

“So there are two voices from the scientific advisory group and I think that’s very dangerous because only one of the two understands the science.”

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