Part of Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill - Report – in the House of Lords at 8:30 pm on 14 December 2021.
Viscount Stansgate
Labour
8:30,
14 December 2021
My Lords, I rise to speak in support of Amendments 12 and 14, to which I have added my name, and the other Amendment in this group. I hope the House will appreciate that this is not a subject that was touched on in Committee—so it is fresh for consideration by the House today. It is nevertheless very important. The noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, and my noble friends Lord Browne and Lord Hanworth have set out the case in some detail, and I do not want to repeat some of the examples they gave, very good though they are. However, I emphasise that mathematical sciences are vital not just to the future of science but to the work of ARIA.
Amendments 12 and 14 are very simple. They would insert the words “and mathematical” in the definition of scientific knowledge and scientific research in Clause 11. These amendments arise because the mathematical community is unsure about whether mathematical sciences are sufficiently included in the definition in the Bill—and it is because the mathematics community is unsure that this debate is taking place. Sometimes people think of sciences as only, or mainly, the core sciences of biology, physics and chemistry, but this is not the case. Mathematics underpins all the other sciences —hence we now use the term STEM as a routine acronym.
Perhaps I could just briefly introduce into this debate the definition of mathematical sciences that is accepted in the community: it is a group of areas of study that includes, in addition to mathematics, those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered as sub-fields of mathematics proper, such as statistics, computer science, computational science, data science, quantitative biology, operations research, control theory, cryptology, econometrics, theoretical physics, continuum mechanics, mathematical chemistry and actuarial science.
Noble Lords will note that in the Bill as it stands, the wording reads
“any of the sciences (including the social sciences)”.
Noble Lords might be wondering why in this Bill the social sciences have been specifically included. I think it reflects something of a mistaken belief for many years that social sciences are somehow not proper science, but attitudes have changed over the years. Noble Lords might cast their minds back to how we dealt with the Ebola crisis: social sciences had a very big part to play in that, and they are also playing a part in how we deal with Covid. My point is that I fully support the reference to social sciences, but I am arguing that the Bill needs specifically to add the phrase “and mathematical sciences”, because the work that ARIA does will be bound to involve maths in one way or another.
As I said, the maths community itself is unsure about its position. I want to quote from something that appears today on the government website—the BEIS website—about the definition of science, to which the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, referred. I shall quote it in more detail. It says:
“Mathematical advances in and of themselves are not science unless they are advances in representing the nature and behaviour of the physical and material universe.”
That is what is causing unease, because this is too narrow a definition of the mathematical sciences when applied to ARIA and its work. These mathematical sciences will contribute hugely across a broad spectrum, including security, computing, astronomy and economics, all of which will be impacted by ARIA. Mathematics is visibly at the core of a great deal of what is at stake here.
I have many more examples but, in view of the late hour, I shall not refer to them—but they all illustrate in one way or another the importance of mathematics. However, I shall just point out that the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, which is a strategic partnership between GCHQ and universities, within which academic mathematicians contribute to problems of national security, is going to be a very important part of the work that ARIA does. That is another reason for adding the words in the amendments that I mentioned.
I look forward to the Minister’s reply, because what she could do very quickly and easily is reassure the mathematical community that it is included in the definition under Clause 11 and that, to some extent, this whole debate may have been unnecessary, as long as it is made clear from the Dispatch Box that mathematics is valued and included.
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As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
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