Government to review role of drug advisers

London: The government had already ordered an inquiry into the future of the panel of scientists advising the Home Office on drug policy before the controversial sacking of its chairman, Professor David Nutt, the Guardian has learned.

The review of the effectiveness of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) will intensify concerns that ministers are downgrading the importance of independent scientific advice in formulating policy.

The purpose of the review "is to satisfy ministers that the ACMD... is discharging its function that the committee was set up to deliver and that it continues to represent value for money".

It is being carried out by Sir David Omand, a former Home Office permanent secretary, and is due to be completed early next year.

The disclosure came as the home secretary, Alan Johnson, agreed to urgent talks with his beleaguered advisory panel of drug experts after they officially warned him that more members were prepared to quit over the sacking of Nutt.

Johnson is facing growing anger from across the scientific community over the affair.

His decision has been condemned by senior scientists and former government advisers, including Lord John Krebs, former head of the Food Standards Agency, and Mike Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust and a member of the prime minister's Council for Science and Technology.

Two leading figures quit the drugs advisory body on Sunday over the sacking.