[3] The office is administratively part of, and funded by, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and reports to the prime minister and cabinet secretary.

It also acts as the secretariat for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, operates a future planning unit, and manages the Government Science and Engineering Profession.

Together, they create and promote guidance and frameworks describing how departments can use the natural and social sciences, engineering and medicine to provide a sound evidence base for making policy.

[9][11] The unit looks to the future, as envisaged by the original white paper, focusing on what science can tell us about how the world could develop and what effects potential interventions might have.

This enables civil servants and the public sector to plan for the long term by providing a view of potential futures under a variety of scenarios.