Chief scientist backs Cummings’ call for civil service shake-up

Patrick Vallance says number of STEM-trained public employees is ‘unacceptably low’

The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, has backed a major push to boost the influence of scientists and engineers within government.

Vallance has thrown his weight behind controversial comments from Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings (pictured, right), who issued an unorthodox job advert earlier this month seeking “weirdos and misfits with odd skills” to work with him in Downing Street. Cummings specifically name-checked economists, data scientists and physicists.