The government office that funds biomedical research in Britain has been accused of misleading scientists over the true magnitude of a recently announced funding increase. In a report published on 6 November, the parliamentary committee on science and technology attacked the government Office of Science and Technology (OST) for making “misleading” statements following the comprehensive spending review earlier this year.

In July, the OST—which channels government money to British funding agencies including the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council—announced a £890-million ($1.4 billion) increase in the science budget over the next three years. The announcement included an extra £400 million ($635 million) for research grants, £100 million ($159 million) to raise salaries for young researchers and fresh funds to renovate university labs.

But the committee report now says that the overall increase in the science budget as a result of the spending review is more accurately represented as £660 million ($1.05 billion). The remaining £230 million ($365 million) was already planned under the previous spending review in 2000. “The way in which the spending review...presents increases to science spending is misleading and leaves the government open to accusations of double-counting,” the report charges.

A spokesperson for the OST denied there was any deliberate deception. “There is no question of double accounting,” she says. “We simply compared the planned expenditure in 2005–06 with the expenditure now. It was always made clear that comparisons were being made with the present levels.”

Committee chair Ian Gibson says the OST and the government have lessons to learn. “There is much more work to be done to ensure greater openness and accountability in government's policy-making on science and technology,” Gibson says. The report also calls on the OST to be more transparent with its performance targets and says it welcomes the recent decision by the government to agree to publish the results of a new crosscutting review of science and research.