Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 42


     
     1   Q.   Civil servants?
     2        A.  Observers right, yes.
     3
     4   Q.   Can we look at page 9 then?
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But who is responsible for drafting the
     7        report at the end of the day?  Is it the members?
     8        A.   Well it depends, my Lord.  Very often there is
     9        somebody, like in this case, Doctor Whitehead might well
    10        have been asked to do it.  But, in most cases, as in the
    11        reports that I have been involved in, it is done by
    12        somebody either in the Department of Health itself, because
    13        they have the manpower to do it, or in WHO or somewhere
    14        else.  So the report is very often drafted originally by
    15        the people who -- the observers who are there.
    16
    17   Q.   I have to say, I treat all men or women with a registerable
    18        medical qualification as scientists?
    19        A.   I am very happy with that.
    20
    21   Q.   I have not met one yet who failed to tell me it was an
    22        inexact science, but they are scientists as well to a
    23        layman like me?
    24        A.   I am sorry, I did not mean to go down this track.  I
    25        do not wish to --
    26
    27   Q.   I think all you are being asked about here is whether the
    28        report can be criticised in certain ways, because it is a
    29        Government report as opposed to a report of people who I
    30        would sees a scientists.  That is what you are putting?
    31
    32   MR. RAMPTON:  That is all, and if one looks my Lord at --
    33        A.   I am perfectly comfortable about these kind of
    34        reports.  They are an extremely good volume, I have no
    35        problems with that.
    36
    37   Q.   Although the final report might be written, as it were, or
    38        drafted by civil servants, there is no way that its
    39        conclusions or recommendations would get through unless the
    40        panel agreed?
    41        A.  The panel would agree with the recommendations.  There
    42        is no doubt about that, yes.
    43
    44   Q.   If you look at (ix), you will see who the permanent members
    45        of the panel were:  Chaired by Doctor Whitehead?
    46        A.   Yes.
    47
    48   Q.   From the NRC nutrition unit at Cambridge, which rather
    49        seems to have dominated this particular panel?
    50        A.   Yes.
    51
    52   Q.   Those are all, broadly speaking, what one would call
    53        respectable scientists?
    54        A.  Yes.  I would say, with great respect, that the
    55        criticism it has been put to this it was rather dominated
    56        by the one group.  And if I was to put together to a
    57        committee of people, I think I would want to choose them
    58        specifically from different walks of life, rather than be
    59        dominated in that way.
    60

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