Professor Kathryn Woods-Townsend and Professor John Holloway were in Parliament, with some of the young people who co-created their research, as part of Evidence Week in Parliament. World-leading researchers spent two days giving MPs rapid-fire briefings on pressing policy issues, including AI, climate change, the environment and healthcare. Evidence Week in Parliament brings together MPs, researchers, and the public to discuss how evidence is used to make policy decisions, and how it is scrutinised by parliament.
Caroline Nokes, MP for Romsey and Southampton North said:
"It’s vital that we make informed decisions in Parliament, guided by sound scientific evidence. Engaging with experts, like the researchers from the University of Southampton, ensures we have the latest insights on complex issues, from health to technology. Evidence Week is a fantastic opportunity to deepen our understanding and to ask the questions that matter most to our constituents."
Westminster’s annual Evidence Week is organised by the charity Sense about Science and the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) and sees MPs meet with leading scientists to get the latest insights on pressing issues covering topics as varied as housing, food supplies, energy, health and inequality. It opened on 20 January with a ‘reverse’ hearing livestreamed from Parliament [1], with voters from across the country getting to ask the chairs of parliamentary Select Committees about the evidence behind legislation that affects them.
Tracey Brown, Director of Sense about Science, said:
“Evidence matters to people, so Caroline Nokes’s public commitment to evidence informed policy making will no doubt be welcome by the people of Romsey and Southampton North. The decisions made by parliament affect all aspects of our lives, so people rightly expect their MP to scrutinise policies and the evidence behind them – it is reassuring to see how many MPs have taken time to get up to speed on the latest research on the pressing issues of the day, from dealing with flooding to the implications of AI.”
