No job advert for science adviser, ministers admit

Robin Walker, parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Department for Exiting the European Union, has backtracked after telling MPs that his department was in the process of hiring a chief scientific adviser.

Speaking to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on 26 October, Walker said that his department was in the process of filling a vacancy for a chief scientific adviser on Brexit, telling the committee, “The Department for Exiting the European Union has got its advert out.”

However, in a letter to the committee dated 27 October, Walker and universities and science minister Jo Johnson wrote to clarify the position. While the role was listed as ‘vacant’ on a government website listing CSAs for different departments, “there is not necessarily a live job advert”, they say.