Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty says he and Sir Patrick Vallance think membership of secretive Sage committee of government’s science advisers SHOULD be made public
- Members of Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has not been revealed
- Whitty said neither he nor Sir Patrick Vallance objected ‘in principle’ to change
- But told MPs he’d been advised on security grounds it could not be published
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England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty backed naming the experts who are advising ministers on coronavirus today – but said they have been told they cannot be identified on security grounbds.
Professor Whitty said neither he nor Sir Patrick Vallance objected ‘in principle’ to the members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) being common knowledge.
But appearing in front of MPs this afternoon he said they had been told it could not happen for security reasons.
It came amid a secrecy row after Sir Patrick, the Chief Scientific Adviser, told MPs last week that the identity of other members of the committee would not be revealed until after the pandemic is over.
Sage meets regularly with membership from across a range of expert fields and its findings are fed into Cobra briefings for ministers.
Appearing remotely in front of the Science and Technology Committee this afternoon, Prof Whitty said: ‘Neither of us have any problem in principle with the names being made public, many people talk about their own work on Sage perfectly legitimately.
Professor Whitty said neither he nor Sir Patrick Vallance objected ‘in principle’ to the members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) being common knowledge
Sir Patrick last week confirmed there were no plans to reveal the identities of the other Sage members until the pandemic was over
‘I’m on Sage, he’s (Sir Patrick) on Sage, all of this is perfectly open.
‘But we were given quite clear advice from the CPNI (Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure) basically based on the fact that Sage is a sub-committee of Cobra and meets under a range of circumstances, some of which are very security related – this is not.
‘The principle needed to be thought through quite carefully. Absolutely no barrier though from me or from Sir Patrick in principle.’
He added: ‘The idea that it’s secret I think is rather strong. I think it’s not published, I suspect most members are actually known one way or another and all of the sub-committees are extremely open.’
MPs last week called for the cast list of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to be made public so that people can see exactly who ministers are getting their advice from.
The government has rejected the calls, with sources claiming the names cannot be published because of security concerns amid reports of some experts receiving death threats.
But former SAGE members have questioned that argument, insisting it is ‘perfectly reasonable’ for people to know who sits on the committee which Boris Johnson is relying on to guide the government’s response to the outbreak.
But in a letter to the same committee, Sir Patrick confirmed there were no plans to reveal the identities of the other Sage members.
‘Once Sage stops convening on this emergency the minutes of relevant Sage meetings, supporting documents and the names of participants (with their permission) will be published,’ he said.