What is Evidence Week?
Evidence Week brings together parliamentarians, researchers and the public to discuss how evidence used to make policy decisions is scrutinised.Parliament functions to debate issues that concern us all, to make and to improve legislation. MPs have challenging and varied responsibilities; their work can move from discussing the impact of housing policies in their constituencies to debating extended cancer screening programmes.
We believe that MPs don’t need a scientific background to understand the evidence that underpins these vital policy decisions. Evidence Week is an opportunity for the public, parliamentarians, and researchers to come together to share knowledge and insights that will help politicians scrutinise evidence.
Evidence Week 2026
Now in its 9th year, Evidence Week in Parliament will be held from 6 to 10 July.
Evidence Week 2025
Evidence Week in Parliament was hosted by Sense about Science in partnership with the Quadram Institute. It brought together the public, researchers and parliamentarians to discuss how evidence is used and scrutinised at Westminster.
Evidence Week 2024
Evidence Week in Parliament was organised by Sense about Science and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the House of Lords Library. We were joined by researchers from across the UK offering rapid-fire policy briefings on hot topics to MPs and Peers.
Westminster 2024Evidence Week 2023
Sense about Science and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) organised Evidence Week 2023 in partnership with the House of Commons Library, House of Lords Library, Ipsos, the UK Statistics Authority, the University of Nottingham and universities and research institutions from across the UK. The week opened with a livestream of the public’s questions on the evidence behind policies, followed by briefings for MPs and Peers, and training for parliamentary staff.
Westminster 2023“Worrying about whether politicians have science backgrounds is a mistake. What we should ask is, what are the insights and resources from research that would help politicians? That’s what Evidence Week is for.” – Tracey Brown, director, Sense about Science
Evidence Week in Westminster 2022
Sense about Science partnered with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) to host Evidence Week at Westminster on 14-18 November 2022. There were individual policy briefings for MPs, training session for parliamentary staff and a livestreamed public panel discussion to answers questions about policy evidence from constituents.
Evidence Week in Holyrood 2022
Sense about Science partnered with SPICe in the Scottish Parliament, and our lead partners RDS Scotland and ADR Scotland, to deliver Evidence Week in Holyrood on 21-25 March 2022. For the first time, MSPs joined researchers and constituents online to discuss how the evidence used to make policy decisions in Scotland is scrutinised.
Holyrood 2022Evidence Week in Westminster 2021
In 2021 Evidence Week was a hybrid event at Westminster, with parliamentarians, constituents and researchers coming together in person and online between 1-5 November. Over 100 MPs and their offices, as well as Peers and government staff, enjoyed an excellent week of briefings, workshops and discussions, delivered in partnership with the Institute of Physics, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), and Ipsos MORI.
Evidence Week in Westminster 2020
Evidence Week in Westminster 2020 took place on November 16th-20th. In its third year, Evidence Week in Westminster took place virtually, opening up an exciting new way for researchers, constituents, and parliamentarians to come together to discuss evidence in policymaking, as well as sharing ideas, techniques, and resources to help decision-makers get across complicated policy issues.
Evidence Week in Westminster 2019
In 2019 more than 100 MPs and peers got involved in Evidence Week in Westminster. We brought in 20 research groups from partner organisations to host innovative evidence pods. These 3-minute briefings tackled issues such as how to: visualise community inequalities, work out the effect of pupil premium or see the scale of the drone noise problem. We counted 163 of these innovative briefings given to MPs and peers across the two days.
Westminster 2019Evidence Week in Westminster 2018
The first ever Evidence Week in Westminster was held in 2018. The week was opened by 30 community groups who spoke in parliament to MPs about why evidence matters to them. On the day of a Commons debate on improving air quality, experts in monitoring and health effects from UCL, Southampton, Manchester and King’s College London briefed MPs at the stand. Evidence Week in Westminster ended with a high-level roundtable about what people want and need from evidence gathering, which SAGE published as a discussion paper.
Westminster 2018Contact
Sense about Science
41 Portland Place,
London W1B 1QH
T: 07355 238071
E: [email protected]
Please note abusive, rude or derogatory messages on any of our platforms will not receive a response.
