www.profeng.com
The home of
Professional Engineering
on the web
Professional Engineering
Home
Current Issue
News Extra
Tech extra
PE Blog
PE Extra
Letters
Archive
Search the Archive
About PE magazine
Contact
Administration
2010 issues
Search our back issues
Search
Subscribe to Professional Engineering magazine
Request a media pack
Our other magazines and journals:
Automotive Engineer
Engineering Opps
PEP Journals
TopEngineeringJobs.com
Related links and resources
PE Archive pre-2008
IMechE
Return to:
Prof Eng Home
Archive
2009 Issues Archive
8 July 2009
Print Page
Chief engineer post ‘not needed’
The government has rejected calls for the creation of a chief engineer post, despite acknowledging “insufficiently visible and appropriate engineering skills” in Whitehall.
The Innovation, Univer-sities, Science and Skills Select Committee warned in March that a lack of engineering skills in the civil service could have a “serious impact” on government plans for a new generation of nuclear power plants.
MPs on the committee said they were “shocked” to discover that engineering advice was absent, or barely featured, in the formulation of key policies including eco-towns, renewable energy and large IT projects.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said it was taking steps to increase the profile of engineering within government. But it insisted that engineering should remain within the remit of the government chief scientific adviser, Professor John Beddington.
BIS said: “We do not accept the case for separate chief engineering advisers at government-wide or departmental levels. The committee’s proposals would involve additional management layers and complication likely to be counter-productive and confusing.
“The government shares the committee’s view that, although considerable pro-gress has been made, more work is needed to improve the availability, quality and impact of engineering advice.”
BIS added that it recognised that a skills gap existed in the nuclear industry. It said that the Office for Nuclear Development is working on a “holistic skills and capability plan for new nuclear build” to fill the gap.
Beddington is also consulting on a new skills framework for science and engineering in government, to be published this month. A “government science and engineering community” was launched in January to promote science and engineering within government.
Previous news story
Next news story
Back to contents
Email us your views
© PE Publishing, 8 July 2009
