Science in the Met Office : thirteenth report of session 2010-12 / House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology.
Date:
2012
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Science in the Met Office : thirteenth report of session 2010-12 / House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ee 5.28 The Government’s view is that the Met Office works very effectively with a wide range of departments and continues to seek to improve the service it provides to its customers. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills September 2011 Annex A BACKGROUND ON THE PUBLIC WEATHER SERVICE CUSTOMER GROUP PWSCG is responsible for setting the requirements and outputs of the PWS provided by the Met Office, supporting research and development to meet future requirements, and providing independent advice and recommendation to the Minister for Universities and Science (formerly the Under Secretary of State for Defence (Minister for Veterans)) to enable formal agreement of the PWS Customer-Supplier Agreement (CSA). In addition to detailed definitions of the PWS outputs, the annually negotiated and agreed CSA specifies performance measures and standards, international commitments and the service price, including year-on-year efficiency savings. Membership of the PWSCG consists of: — Independent Chair—currently this position is held by Nick Baldwin. — Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies representative. — Association of Chief Police Officers representative. — Chief Fire Officers Association representative. — Local Government Association representative. — Scottish Executive Government representative. — Welsh Government representative. — Environment Agency representative. — Highways Agency representative. — Independent member representing the UK public. The PWSCG meets quarterly to provide strategic direction and challenge to the Public Weather Service. The group is supported by a secretariat which monitors and challenges PWS performance on a monthly basis and is currently advised on reach by the Editor of BBC Weather. The PWSCG is responsible for defining the scope of the PWS remit (which defines the Met Office Public Task) which is to: — produce weather forecasts which help the UK public make informed decisions about day-to-day activities; — warn people of extreme weather to mitigate its impacts—contributing to the protection of life, property and infrastructure; — improve weather and climate predictions through research; — fulfil international commitments on behalf of the UK Government; and — provide public access to historic weather information via our Library and Archive and climatological records. The PWSCG undertakes a programme of consultation to ensure that any changes that are made to current or future PWS outputs are based on independent consultation and will withstand a robust degree of external challenge. In addition, the PWSCG ensures availability of research, forecast and observational data required by the Met Office in order to deliver services to other Public Sector customers, and to make the same data available to the Met Office’s commercial arm and the private sector. Finally, the PWSCG requires the PWS to fulfil commitments on behalf of UK Government on three designated international bodies. Details on how well the PWS meets these requirements are provided from paragraphs 1.14 to 1.31 in this memorandum. Further detail can be found in the PWSCG Annual Report for financial year 2010-11: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ media/pdf/m/5/PWSCG_Annual_Report.pdf. Annex B TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE PUBLIC WEATHER SERVICE CUSTOMER GROUP (PWSCG) Note: These terms of reference are in the process of being updated for formal adoption as part of the change of PWSCG ownership from MoD to BIS.