Benefits to policy making

Evidence from ordinary people to inform policy decisions
Public dialogue is designed to help policy makers gather evidence from ordinary people to inform their decisions - not to make those decisions for them. Ultimate responsibility for policy remains with the Cabinet and elected Ministers and this must always be made clear from the start in any true public dialogue.

The data gathered from a public dialogue exercise is used to provide a complementary perspective to the views of other stakeholders involved in determining the future direction and use of science and technology.

Public dialogue does not set out to be totally representative of the views of the public as a whole or to provide evidence of how many people in the UK have this or that view.  However, it does provide valuable qualitative evidence of opinion from a diverse group of the public and as such gives considerable added strength to the legitimacy of the policy.

In particular, public dialogue is a good way of accessing so-called hard to reach and vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities, those with disabilities, single parents, the elderly – all people who would not normally take part in more traditional types of opinion-gathering.

Participants generally satisfied to have their views heard
The experience of Sciencewise over the past four years has shown that the public accepts the role that dialogue gives it in the decision-making process.  Provided policy makers make it clear exactly what will happen to the outcomes of the deliberations, and who will listen, participants are generally satisfied with the opportunity to have their views heard and taken seriously by the Government.

Public dialogue reduces risk
For policy makers, there are a considerable number of benefits to be gained from carrying out dialogue with the public before decisions are made, particularly on contentious topics and areas of particular moral and ethical sensitivity.

Whilst those within Government have considerable understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable, it is not necessarily the case that the true feelings of the public are always clear.  What politicians think will be the reaction to a potential policy can sometimes be wide of the mark. The history of Government over recent years has been littered with miscalculations of public views, for example, on nuclear power and genetic modification.

Whilst there may be some risks in eliciting public opinions ‘upstream’ – and these include the possibility of policy makers having to change their minds over certain issues – the risks of not carrying out dialogue are much greater. The former Government Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, is on record as saying that the estimated cost to the economy of the controversy over GM food crops has amounted to a billion pounds a year in lost revenue to UK plc.

Public dialogue is informing and up-to-date in a constantly changing world
Moreover, society’s attitudes to science and technology are constantly changing as the benefits of new scientific research and technologies become apparent. This is particularly true in the area of healthcare where there have been enormous strides forward over recent years in using science to combat genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy, Motor Neurone disease, cystic fibrosis and many more.

Another example is people’s attitudes to stem cell research, which have undergone significant change since the Government was first called upon to legislate on this new and challenging area of science. The concept of stem cell research has now been widely accepted among the public, and the difficult decisions in the future will centre on the extent to which this type of research is allowed to develop, the uses to which it is put, and the benefits which are likely to be made to different sections of society.

Results in more positive reaction to policy decisions
As science and technology continues to forge ahead, it is clear that successive Governments will have increasingly difficult societal, moral and ethical decisions to face. Public dialogue is one way of ensuring that better policies are made – and that public reaction to decisions is more likely to be positive in the future.