Many of the trials taking place today are unregistered and unpublished, meaning that the information that they generate remains invisible to both the scientific community and the public. This undermines public trust, slowing the pace of medical advancement and potentially putting patients at risk. All trials conducted on NHS treatments-and all other trials receiving public funding-should be prospectively registered and their results published in a scientific journal. While the focus should be on implementing this change for future trials, the Government must also do what it can to ensure that historic trials are registered and published, particularly where they have been publically funded. The Government should also take steps to facilitate greater sharing of the raw data generated during a trial in a responsible and controlled way, with the knowledge and consent of patients. The report also draws attention to the recent fall in the number of trials taking place in the UK. It finds that the need for multiple governance approvals from participating NHS organisations remained the biggest barrier to setting up a UK trial, but that lack of public awareness was also a key issue. Recruiting participants can also be a challenge. The report calls on the Government to take its recommendations into account in ongoing discussions regarding the revision of European clinical trials legislation and in its response to the European Medicines Agency's consultation on the release of clinical trial data, which closes at the end of this month

The Committee heard much positive feedback about the work of the UK Space Agency since its creation in 2011. The UK's space sector is one of our economy's fastest growing sectors, with an average growth rate of almost 7.5%, and it has ambitions to increase its annual turnover to £40 billion by 2030. The report welcomes recent increases in the UK's commitments to the European Space Agency, but urged the UK Space Agency to strengthen UK influence within the European Space Agency by providing support for UK candidates applying for future director-level positions within the Agency. There are a number of exciting developments happening in the UK space sector, including the expansion of the European Space Agency's operations at Harwell, the establishment of the Satellite Applications Catapult and Major Tim Peake's upcoming mission to the International Space Station. With continued cross-party support, we hope to see this sector expand in line with its ambitions and continue to attract jobs and businesses to the UK

Scientific research is fundamental to addressing issues of great importance to the development of human knowledge. Scientific research fuels advances in medicine, technology and other areas important to society and has to be credible, trustworthy and able to command confidence in the face of inevitable uncertainties. Scientific researchers must be trusted and respected when they engage with knowledge acquisition and dissemination and as ethical guardians in their education and training roles of future generations of researchers. The core values of scientific research transcend disciplinary and national boundaries and approaches to the organisation and oversight of research systems can impact significantly upon the ethics and conduct of researchers. This book draws upon legal expertise to critically analyse issues of regulation, conduct and ethics at the important interface between scientific research and regulatory and legal environments. In so doing it aims to contribute important additional perspectives to the existing literature. Case studies are engaged with to assist with the critical analysis of the current position and the consideration of future possibilities. The book will be of interest to academics in the fields of science, law and policy; science and law students; and scientific researchers at more advanced stages of their careers. Research professionals in government and the private sector and legal practitioners with interests in the regulation of research should also find the work of interest.

In its broadest sense, biometrics is the measurement and analysis of a biological characteristic (fingerprints, iris patterns, retinas, face or hand geometry) or a behavioural characteristic (voice, gait or signature). Biometric technologies use these characteristics to identify individuals automatically. Unlike identity documents or passwords, biometrics cannot be lost or forgotten since they are a part of the user and are always present at the time of identification. They are also difficult, though not impossible, to forge or share. Three future trends in the application of biometrics were identified during the inquiry: (i) the growth of unsupervised biometric systems, accessed via mobile devices, which verify identity; (ii) the proliferation of "second-generation" biometric technologies that can authenticate individuals covertly; (iii) and the linking of biometric data with other types of 'big data' as part of efforts to profile individuals. Each of these trends introduces risks and benefits to individuals, to the state and to society as a whole. They also raise important ethical and legal questions relating to privacy and autonomy. The Committee are not convinced that the Government has addressed these questions, nor are they satisfied that it has looked ahead and considered how the risks and benefits of biometrics will be managed and communicated to the public.

This book draws a unique perspective on the regulation of access to clinical trial data as a case on research and knowledge externalities. Notwithstanding numerous potential benefits for medical research and public health, many jurisdictions have struggled to ensure access to clinical trial data, even at the level of the trial results. Pro-access policy initiatives have been strongly opposed by research-based drug companies arguing that mandatory data disclosure impedes their innovation incentives. Conventionally, access to test data has been approached from the perspective of transparency and research ethics. The book offers a complementary view and considers access to individual patient-level trial data for exploratory analysis as a matter of research and innovation policy. Such approach appears to be especially relevant in the data-driven economy where digital data constitutes a valuable economic resource. The study seeks to define how the rules of access to clinical trial data should be designed to reconcile the policy objectives of leveraging the research potential of data through secondary analysis, on the one hand, and protecting economic incentives of research-based drug companies, on the other hand. Overall, it is argued that the mainstream innovation-based justification for exclusive control over the outcomes of research and development can hardly rationalise trial sponsors’ control over primary data from trials. Instead, access to such data and its robust analysis should be prioritised.

The Government is failing to clearly and effectively communicate climate science to the public. There is little evidence of co-ordination amongst Government, government agencies and public bodies on communicating climate science, despite various policies at national and regional level to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The mandate to act on climate can only be maintained if the electorate are convinced that the Government is acting on the basis of strong scientific evidence. Ministers therefore need to do more to demonstrate that is the case and consistently reflect the Government approach in all their communications, especially with the media. The report also criticises the BBC for its reporting on the issue. It points out that BBC News teams continue to make mistakes in their coverage of climate science by giving opinions and scientific fact the same weight. The BBC is called to develop clear editorial guidelines for all commentators and presenters on the facts of climate that should be used to challenge statements, from either side of the climate policy debate, that stray too far from the scientific facts. It is important that climate science is presented separately from any subsequent policy response. Government should work with the learned societies and national academies to develop a source of information on climate science that is discrete from policy delivery, comprehensible to the general public and responsive to both current developments and uncertainties in the science