The Chief Scientific Officer in England is the head of profession for the 53,000 healthcare scientists

Healthcare science

Healthcare science is the applied science dealing with the application of science, technology, engineering or mathematics to the delivery of healthcare....

 working in the National Health Service

National Health Service (England)

The National Health Service or NHS is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. It is both the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. It is able to function in the way that it does because it is primarily funded through the general taxation system, similar to how...

 and its associated bodies.

The Chief Scientific Officer is one of the six professional officers (including the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer who are employed within the Department of Health

Department of Health (United Kingdom)

The Department of Health is a department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for government policy for health and social care matters and for the National Health Service in England along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish,...

. These roles lead of their own professional groups as well as providing expert knowledge about their specific disciplines to civil servants and Government Ministers.

The Chief Scientific Officer has responsibility for delivering the Government's strategy for a modernised healthcare science workforce. They are also responsible for developments in scientific services in the NHS and for raising the profile of science in health.

Professor Sue Hill OBE has been the Chief Scientific Officer since October 2002.