Ian Boyd
 Ian Boyd    (academic, zoologist) | ||||||||||||
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| Born | 9 February 1957 Kilmarnock | |||||||||||
| Nationality | Scottish | |||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen, St John's College (Cambridge) | |||||||||||
| Member of | Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies | |||||||||||
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Sir Ian Lamont Boyd is an academic who was DEFRA's Chief scientific adviser for 7 years. He advised the UK Government about the Skripal Affair in 2018. After increasing calls for transparency as regards the government's SAGE advisory group, he spoke to the Press Association on the topic in 2020.[1]
Activities
Ian Boyd reports that he was involved in advising the UK Government about the Skripal Affair in 2018.[1]
Statements about SAGE
“What happens is that you get an email through or you get a calendar invite through which is a calling notice that says there’s gonna be a Sage at a particular time you’re invited to attend, and here’s the agenda.”
Ian Boyd [2]
“I’m really, really adamant about that – one cannot have a public debate about what the science is saying and what it’s not saying.”
Ian Boyd [2]
Boyd stated that
“There’s an immense amount of interest outside from people who would love to get inside, and change what Sage is saying, and that must never ever be allowed to happen. Otherwise, the trust in the whole process will just evaporate. I think it is not ideal. In an ideal world you’d have complete transparency, but it’s not an ideal world. There’s a lot of what I would call dark forces who are trying to undermine the validity of the way that science works and as a result of that Sage has to be conducted in a way that makes sure that they don’t have that opportunity. And it’s difficult, and I don’t think anybody who sits on Sage or chairs Sage really wants it that way. But on the other hand, there is no real option other than to do it that way.”
Ian Boyd (2020) [2]
