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EVIDENCE BASED POLICYMAKING: AN OVERVIEW

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Title: EVIDENCE BASED POLICYMAKING: AN OVERVIEW


1
EVIDENCE BASED POLICYMAKING AN
OVERVIEW Professor Howard Dalton Chief
Scientific Adviser to Defra
2
SCAR ad-hoc Working Groups set up to explore
co-ordination in priority policy-research areas
  • Denmark ICT and robotics in agriculture
  • Denmark Enzyme BioTechnology in Food and
    Agro-industrial Processing
  • Germany Renewable Raw Materials and their
    Application in Non-Food Industries.
  • Ireland Sustainable Livestock production from
    Grasslands
  • Italy Relevant issues for Mediterranean
    agriculture.
  • UK Animal Health, Including Emerging Threats,
    Infectious Diseases and Surveillance.
  • Belgium Functional Animal Foodsand there are
    others

3
The challenges for this meeting are
  • Can we find a common approach to research
    planning that will enable us to meet the demands
    of common future policy objectives?
  • Can we create a common process that is
    sustainable and that will deliver the evidence
    for the medium and the longer term?

4
The Defra Evidence and Innovation Strategy
process
  • Description of the key elements in our Evidence
    and Innovation Strategy process
  • Two examples of Defra policy cases
  • Questions that need to be discussed in our
    breakout sessions.

5
Defras use of evidence in policymaking
6
Science governance and quality control
  • The Science Advisory Council (SAC)
  • Provides Defra with expert, independent advice
  • Three working sub-groups
  • Epidemic Diseases
  • Science, evidence, and innovation strategy
  • Governance

7
Evidence and Innovation Strategy Benefits
  • Better alignment of our evidence base with the
    Strategic Outcomes
  • More robust policy and strategy
  • Better utilisation of knowledge and innovation
  • Greater collaboration to share costs

8
Case 1
  • Agri-Environment Support Schemes
  • Improving the Environmental Impact of
    Agriculture

9
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10
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11
Quantitative predictions of response of bird
populations to agricultural change
  • Manipulation of habitat variables
  • e.g. whitethroat populations increase by 130 if
    2m margins added to 30 of field boundaries
  • Management needs better information on effects
    of landscape and habitat quality

12
Chalkhill Blue
1000
Collated Index (Log scale)
100
All Sites
Scheme
Non-Scheme
10
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
13
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14
Pilot Scheme objective
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the measures in
    delivering biodiversity
  • Evaluate the uptake of the scheme in different
    areas
  • Assess effectiveness of implementation

15
Success factors
  • Based in detailed ecological study
  • Trialled at the farm scale and shown benefits
  • Simple/agronomically feasible
  • Well targeted
  • Plans tailored to existing biodiversity interest

16
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17
Case 2
  • GM Crops and their Impact on the Environment
  • The UK Farm Scale Evaluation (FSE) Studies

18
Several applications for commercial cultivations
of herbicide-tolerant GM crops submitted during
the 1990sWill herbicide management in GM crops
harm biodiversity? not covered by directive
90/220Intensive herbicide in conventional
farming already contributed to decline in several
farmland bird speciesTwo-pronged approach To
lobby for change to EU Directive To commission
research
19
The farm-scale evaluations of herbicide-tolerant
GM crops (FSE)
  • Three year study
  • To test the env impacts due to management of GMHT
    crops
  • Large geographical coverage
  • gt 60 fields per crop
  • Range of farming practices
  • Field sites legend
  • Winter oilseed rape fields
  • Spring oilseed rape fields
  • Maize fields (yellow)
  • Beet fields

20
Ensuring high quality science and building
confidence
  • Consortium of leading scientific institutions
    selected after tendering process
  • Independent Scientific Steering Committee
    appointed to oversee the study
  • Publication of the results in peer-reviewed
    scientific journals
  • Results considered by statutory advisory
    committee which produced advice to ministers on
    implications of results

21
FSE key results
  • GMHT maize would not result in adverse effects on
    the abundance and diversity of arable plants and
    invertebrates if grown and managed as in the FSEs
  • GMHT oilseed rape and beet would results in
    adverse effects on broad-leaved arable weed
    populations if grown and managed as in the FSEs,
    which are likely to result in adverse effects on
    organisms at higher trophic levels (e.g. farmland
    birds)
  • Provided the basis for landscape models of GMHT
    plant impact and gene flow predictions

22
UK Government decision
  • Evidence-based decision on individual GM crops
  • To agree in principle to the commercial
    cultivation of GM herbicide-tolerant maize if
    grown and managed as in the FSE (subject to
    certain conditions)
  • To oppose the commercial cultivation of the
    relevant varieties of GM beet and oilseed rape
    using the management regime tested in the
    farm-scale evaluations

http//www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/ministers/statem
ents/mb040309.htm
23
.and finally..
  • How do we now put into place a common approach to
    evidence based policy making?
  • One that is workable across Europe and one that
    can help us to address those multifactoral issues
    that directly affect us in our national contexts
  • This is an issue that I hope the two breakout
    sessions will consider
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