The UK parliamentary office of science and technology and its interaction with the OTA

Abstract

The formation of the US Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) reflected a more widespread need among national legislatures to find new ways of allowing informed debate and decision on the complex issues which society needs to address involving science and technology. The initial case for setting up the UK's Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) was very much inspired by OTA's experience, and POST's founders drew heavily on the OTA model to develop and then implement their proposals. This article reviews the history of POST and how it was influenced by the OTA, describing and explaining the reasons for taking similar or different approaches to that of OTA. Primary differences are in the definition of the “customer,” which in POST's case is not just committees but also the wider general interest of Parliament membership. POST also has a more flexible remit than OTA, and thus can respond swiftly to issues on the parliamentary agenda. It is suggested that this flexibility and attention to developing a broad customer base may have been an important factor in POST's re-authorization during 1995 at the same time as OTA was being shut down by its parent Congress.