What role do government expert advisory committees play in the policy making process?

 Speaker: Zahi Sulaiman, Secretary to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Home Office
 
Chair: Dr Penny Carmichael, Policy Impact Unit
 
For this session we will be joined Zahi Sulaiman, Secretary to the Home Office’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The ACMD is an advisory non-departmental public body sponsored by the Home Office which makes recommendations to government on the control of dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs, including classification and scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and its regulations.
 
Zahi, a UCL chemistry alum, will provide insights on the role of expert advisory committees in shaping policy decisions made within government departments, including how they hold ministers to account. Participants will leave with a greater understanding of how government advisory committees assist the government in its ambition to deliver “evidence-based policy making” and the ways in which the academic community can engage with government advisory committees, both through membership and on a more ad-hoc basis.

About the series

The world of policy making can be a ‘black box’ for many. Who are policy makers and how do they actually ‘make’ policy? How are experts selected for advisory committees? These questions, among others, can make engaging with policy seem like an impossible task to start.

The Policy Impact Unit is running a series of lunch and learn seminars over the year to give UCL Engineering researchers the opportunity to hear first-hand from policy professionals working in range of policy roles, including in Government, Parliament, Local Government, Expert Institutions and campaigning and lobbying.

During the seminars, attendees will to hear what it is like to work in a policy role, to learn more about how research evidence is used in policymaking and to hear how researchers can get involved.  The seminars will be a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in sharing their research with policymakers to learn more about how policy is made and how academics can feed in to the process.