Risk communication should be designed to inform policy makers about public attitudes towards risk by:
- giving policy makers a more detailed contextual understanding of how risks and risk governance impact the public in everyday life
- developing risk approaches that lead and structure policy processes, as opposed to conforming to pre-existing practice
- informing the ways in which policy-makers understand and apply expert knowledge
- building capacity in accessing, mediating between, and applying a wider range of expertise and knowledge in the policy process
- recommending engagement practices that encourage the public and stakeholders to inform policy, thereby conferring legitimacy on governance processes
- translating best-practices in risk governance into advice to decision-makers
The task for policy makers is to be open-minded when dealing with the public and to develop the skills and aptitudes that will allow them to tap into these various types of knowledge and make best-use of what they offer.
