Policy area: Public sector

Reports

Getting the machine learning

This report from UK think tank Reform sets out practical recommendations for overhauling the approach to AI This report from UK think tank Reform is a step-by-step guide to adopting AI in the areas of government where it has the most promise. AI has the potential to drastically transform government for the better, increasing efficiency...

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How to run the next multi-year spending review

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government says that Labour's missions need a reformed spending review process. The approach taken in recent spending reviews is not up to the job of achieving Labour’s missions. This report shows how the existing process fails to align government spending with strategic priorities and long-term value...

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Unblocking the pipeline

This report from UK think tank HEPI explores the experiences of Black early-career academics (ECAs) in higher education. This report explores the experiences of Black early-career academics (ECAs) in higher education. Based on a survey of nearly 100 Black ECAs and 24 interviews with staff working on initiatives to support them, this report examines the...

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20 ways to improve the civil service

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government sets out 20 tangible actions that the new government should take to radically improve the civil service. Almost a month after the general election, new ministers and advisers are settling into their roles. Departments have already issued a stream of announcements and new initiatives, and...

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An introduction to taxation

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs explores the principles that would define a better and simpler tax system. Taxation may be necessary to fund public services, but policymakers must consider its moral and economic costs. Most taxes are overly complex, politically skewed, and often cause more economic harm than good....

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Fixing public services: priorities for the new Labour government

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government examines the public services priorities for the new Labour government. This report from the Institute for Government and Nuffield Foundation reveals that the government’s inheritance on public services is extremely precarious. Most services are performing worse now than they were in 2010 or before the...

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Clearing the air

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation explores the costs of restrictive software licensing practices on the public and private sector. This Social Market Foundation report explores the costs of restrictive software licensing practices on the public and private sector. It reviews existing literature on the cloud, draws upon interviews with IT...

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Betting the house

This report from UK think tank Localis examines local policy challenges and the 2024 general election. Betting the House presents a locally-focused analysis of the election manifestos of the two parties most likely to form a government in 2024, Labour and the Conservatives. However the election turns out, the incoming government must reckon with a...

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Capital spending in public services: fixing how the government invests in the NHS, schools and prisons

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government reveals the impact of the UK’s historically low – and badly spent – capital budgets. Crumbling buildings, creaking IT and a lack of equipment will continue to seriously hamper public service performance unless the next government takes a new approach to capital spending. This report,...

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Driving universal health reforms through crises and shocks

This report from UK think tank Chatham House examines driving universal health reforms through crises and shocks. Universal health coverage (UHC) is achieved when everyone receives the health services they need, free at the point of delivery. Target 3.8 of the Sustainable Development Goals sets the ambition for all countries to achieve UHC by 2030,...

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The quantity theory of money: a new restatement

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs emphasises the importance of a broadly defined money aggregate in the determination of nominal national income and wealth. The overwhelming majority of economists were wrong in their forecasts about the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. They believed that it would result in years of...

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From the ballot to the bullet

This report from UK think tank the Henry Jackson Society explains how political violence works and why it poses such a threat to our democracy. Democracy is under attack. The culprit: political violence. In recent years, politicians in the UK and other Western democracies have been the target of acts of violence. These have ranged...

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You do not exist

This report from UK think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs offers a fresh perspective on the George Orwell classic dystopia 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the UK publication of George Orwell’s classic dystopia Nineteen Eighty-Four (8 June 2024), the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is republishing the novel with a new...

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Poverty stigma: a glue that holds poverty in place

This report from UK think tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation offers a redefinition of poverty stigma and its role in making poverty socially acceptable. The UK is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, but ‘since the 1980s there has been an unprecedented rise in poverty’ in Britain, ‘which has never been reversed’ and...

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Delivering a general practice estate that is fit for purpose

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government says that the next government must urgently modernise old and cramped NHS GP buildings. GPs and the rest of the general practice workforce are working in buildings that are often too cramped, too old and too inflexible for a modern health service – with a...

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Related Events

20 September 2024

Location: Adam Smith Institute 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3DJ

Think tank: Adam Smith Institute

The bully state: how Nanny is taking over Britain

This event hosted by UK think tank the Adam Smith Institute discusses burgeoning public health interventions and restrictions on individual freedoms. The Nanny State was coined in 1965 by Iain Macleod MP, and since that time, burgeoning public health interventions and restrictions on individual freedoms have continued flowing from Whitehall and into the pubs, shops,...

10 October 2024

Location: Online

Think tank: Localis

Heart of the matter: capacity, devolution and mission-led government

This event hosted by UK think tank Localis discusses their research into the future direction of place based public service reform. 'Heart of the matter – getting to grips with whole place transformation' is a research project which has sought, through extensive dialogue with public service directors and placemakers, and independent place research, to ascertain...

Related Articles

What is important when thinking about digital government services?

Digital government services must be made truly accessible to reduce inequalities By Josh Abel (Fabian Society) The pandemic has brought the digital divide to the forefront of public policy debate. During lockdown, far too many children were unable to learn from home because they could not access the internet and millions of households faced social isolation because they were...

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