What’s going on in the UK: 27 July to 6 September

This week: Treasury spending controls, AI governance, research integrity and more

Treasury spending controls

The government’s nascent science department should be “unleashed” from Treasury bureaucracy and set a “bold” new R&D target, a report has urged. In Wired for Success, centre-right think tank Onward warned that Department for Science, Innovation and Technology projects are being hampered by “lengthy and bureaucratic” Treasury spending controls. Onward argued that major projects should be exempt from Treasury sign-off, with single business cases approved by Dsit agencies such as national funder UK Research and Innovation and the UK Space Agency. Responsibility for evaluating Dsit spending should be shifted to experts, it added.