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As a society, do we have a problem with risk as a reality of our lives? People are willing to apportion blame, but are they willing to accept it? "Fears, phobias and facts", the second in a series of joint policy forums between the New Statesman and Pfizer, aimed to unravel what different groups of people understand about risk and how they respond to it.

One of the most important factors appears to be the level of trust that people have in the information given to them. This is evidenced by the public’s response to the MMR debate. But how far does the public understand that scientific knowledge is developed through uncertainty, argument and debate?

The age of the public deferring to experts is over; there has been a decline in trust in traditional institutions. Ordinary people are now subject to a cacophony of news stories. But who edits that information and how does the public decide who to trust? What does government, public authority or industry need to do to inform the public debate?.

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