MP ‘concerned’ about scientific advice at transport department

The chair of the Environmental Audit Committee has raised concerns over the use of scientific advice at the Department for Transport.

At a committee hearing on planetary health on 2 April, Mary Creagh asked Phil Blythe, the chief scientific adviser to the department, whether scientific evidence had fed into its decision to fund an innovation trial aimed at using recycled plastic pellets to resurface roads and involving multiple universities.

Creagh, a Labour MP for Wakefield, specifically wanted to find out whether the department had considered the environmental impact of such a project before giving it the green light.