Scientists are being silenced during the electoral period, a "ridiculous" situation that means the public is getting an “evidence deficit at the very time they need the best evidence”, they have told BuzzFeed News.



The period before an election, during which civil servants are restricted in what they can say to the media, is known as "purdah". The rules of purdah say civil servants cannot make public statements, such as press briefings, that could be seen as supporting one political party or another or that would distract public opinion away from parliamentary candidates.

Purdah applies to many scientists – not only those in the direct employ of the government, but also many who sit on independent advisory boards and research councils. BuzzFeed News has learned it has affected scientists’ ability to speak on two high-profile subjects in the last week.

Last week we published an article about the “global warming hiatus”, the period between about 1998 and 2012 when the world appeared to get warmer more slowly than was expected. We attempted to get comment from a Met Office scientist, but were told by its press office that climate sceptics could view a civil servant’s comment about climate change as political.

Around the same time, the government published a new plan for tackling air pollution after being ordered by a judge to do so, having attempted to delay publication because of the election.

At least three scientists on an independent government advisory committee were explicitly told by the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and other government departments that they couldn’t offer any comment on it. Other scientists who have no connection to the government and were able to comment told BuzzFeed News the plan was “toothless” and “weak”.

Fiona Fox, the head of the Science Media Centre, an organisation that helps put news outlets in touch with scientific expertise, told BuzzFeed News: “We had [problems with purdah] with the pollution stuff, and it really matters.” She said the SMC contacted three senior scientists, all members of independent scientific advisory committees, to get comment on the story, and was told by government departments that they couldn’t speak.

BuzzFeed News contacted a scientist on such a committee – Professor Frank Kelly of King’s College London, chair of the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants – who confirmed that he had been explicitly advised not to address the media.

“[The three scientists] were among the best on our database,” Fox said. “We love independent government advisers – the whole point of them is that they’re independent.”

It is particularly strange that they are off-limits for comment, she said, since these are not civil servants in the full-time pay of the government but scientists who once or twice a year join the advisory groups. “I don’t even know if they’re paid. It really is not the major part of their job.”

She doesn’t think that the advice was a deliberate attempt to prevent scientists from attacking the government’s air pollution plan – ”I’m not conspiratorial about it, because I’ve been putting up with it for so many years” – but she does think it’s unhelpful.

“It doesn’t strike me as sensible,” she said. “There’s lots of fear and self-censorship.” In the case of the air pollution report it was particularly silly, she said, since the report's publication was a breach – or at least a sidestepping – of purdah in itself.