Title: Parliamentary technology assessment in the UK

Authors: Michael Norton

Addresses: Director, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SWlP 3JA, UK

Abstract: On 1 April 1993, the UK Parliament joined the legislatures of several other industrial nations in having its own internal office of science and technology. This followed the example of others (such as the US Congress| Office of Technology Assessment) in recognizing the important role that science and technology have to play in a country|s affairs. However, the office was established in a unique way, by building on a privately-financed initiative by Members of both Houses of Parliament which had succeeded in demonstrating the usefulness of such an office before the legislature was required to take a decision on funding. This paper describes the rationale for setting up the UK|s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) in this way, and the recent experience of the UK in parliamentary technology assessment.

Keywords: technology assessment; Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology; UK Parliament; United Kingdom; technology management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1996.025453

International Journal of Technology Management, 1996 Vol.11 No.5/6, pp.581 - 588

Published online: 22 May 2009 *

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