A partial list of the scientists who have been advising the government through the coronavirus crisis has been published.
The names of people who have been advising via the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and its sub-committees has been published after weeks of demands for more transparency on how the scientific advice is put together.
It comes after the government faced outrage over the credibility of its coronavirus decision-making after it emerged that Boris Johnson ‘s chief adviser Dominic Cummings participated in meetings of the scientific panel.
Mr Cummings was not the only political apointee to attend the meeting.
Ben Warner, another No 10 adviser, attended a crunch meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on 23 March, the day before the prime minister announced the lockdown.
Membership of Sage had been a closely guarded secret but Sir Patrick Vallance the Chief Scientific Advisor said he would publish a list of contributors to the meetings if they agreed for their name to be published.
On Monday, Sir Patrick said membership of Sage and the subcommittees that fed into it would be published and scientific advisers were emailed over the weekend and given the chance to “opt-out” of being named in public.
No 10 said that Scientists were being given the option to opt-out in case of fears about harassment or threats to their safety.
A leaked cast list, seen by The Guardian, said that Mr Cummings and Mr Warner, a data scientist who worked with Mr Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign, have both attended meetings.
Downing Street insisted the pair were not ”members of Sage” and had attended some of the group’s meetings “to understand better the scientific debates concerning this emergency” and “understand better the limits of how science and data can help government decisions”.
In a strongly-worded statement last week, No 10 claimed “public confidence in the media has collapsed during this emergency partly because of ludicrous stories such as this”.
But participants told the Guardian that Mr Cummings and Mr Warner had been actively participating in discussions.
Some anonymously expressed concerns that it had changed the tone of meetings.
Although one advisor willing to go on the record was keen to stress that this was not the case.
Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College said “There have been a number of observers at those meetings, who have not interfered with business at all."
The list
| Sir Patrick Vallance FMedSci FRS | Government Chief Scientific Adviser |
| Professor Chris Whitty CB FMedSci | Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser, Department of Health and Social Care |
| Professor John Aston | Chief Scientific Adviser, Home Office |
| Professor Wendy Barclay FMedSci | Imperial College London |
| Professor Phil Blythe | Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Transport |
| Professor Ian Boyd FRSE | University of St Andrews |
| Professor Andrew Curran | Chief Scientific Adviser, Health and Safety Executive |
| Dr Gavin Debrera | Public Health England |
| Professor Sir Ian Diamond FRSE FBA | National Statistician, Office for National Statistics |
| Professor Yvonne Doyle CB | Medical Director, Public Health England |
| Professor John Edmunds OBE FMedSci | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
| Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar FMedSci FRS | Director, Wellcome Trust |
| Professor Neil Ferguson OBE FMedSci | Imperial College London |
| Dr Aidan Fowler FRCS | National Health Service England |
| Professor Julia Gog | University of Cambridge |
| Dr David Halpern | Behavioural Insights Team, Cabinet Office |
| Dr Jenny Harries OBE | Deputy Chief Medical Officer |
| Dr Demis Hassabis FRS | Personal capacity as a data scientist |
| Professor Peter Horby | University of Oxford |
| Dr Indra Joshi | NHSx |
| Professor Dame Theresa Marteau FMedSci | University of Cambridge |
| Professor Dame Angela McLean FRS | Chief Scientific Adviser, Ministry of Defence |
| Professor Graham Medley | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine |
| Professor Andrew Morris FMedSci FRSE | University of Edinburgh |
| Professor Carole Mundell | Chief Scientific Adviser, Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
| Professor Cath Noakes | University of Leeds |
| Dr Rob Orford | Welsh Government |
| Professor Michael Parker | University of Oxford |
| Professor Sharon Peacock FMedSci | Public Health England |
| Professor Alan Penn | Chief Scientific Adviser, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government |
| Professor Steve Powis FRCP | National Health Service England |
| Dr Mike Prentice | National Health Service England |
| Mr Osama Rahman | Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Education |
| Professor Venki Ramakrishnan PRS | Ex Officio as Chair of DELVE, convened by the Royal Society |
| Professor Andrew Rambaut FRSE | University of Edinburgh |
| Professor Tom Rodden | Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport |
| Professor Brooke Rogers OBE | Kings College London |
| Dr James Rubin | Kings College London |
| Professor Calum Semple | University of Liverpool |
| Dr Mike Short CBE | Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for International Trade |
| Dr Gregor Smith | Scottish Government Chief Medical Officer |
| Professor Sir David Spieglhalter FRS | University of Cambridge |
| Professor Jonathan Van Tam MBE | Deputy Chief Medical Officer |
| Professor Russell Viner PRCPCH | University College London |
| Professor Charlotte Watts CMG FMedSci | Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for International Development |
| Professor Mark Walport FRCP FMedSci FRS | UK Research and Innovation |
| Professor Mark Woolhouse FRSE | University of Edinburgh |
| Professor Lucy Yardley | University of Bristol |
| Professor Ian Young | Northern Ireland Executive |
| Professor Maria Zambon FMedSci | Public Health England |
Two members of the committee did not give their consent to be named in public.
