Brexit: what now for Whitehall?
The panel included Bernard Jenkin MP, Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee; Lord Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary; Melanie Dawes, Permanent Secretary for...
View ArticleThe domestic politics of negotiating Brexit: EU money?
The UK makes an average net contribution to the EU of £7.1bn. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), on average the UK Government contributes £12.7bn a year to the EU, and receives...
View ArticleThe Civil Service in the devolved nations
Five UK Secretaries of State have more civil servants at their disposal than any of the First Ministers of the devolved nations. The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) employs 23,486 civil servants,...
View ArticleTheresa May’s first Brexit Cabinet meeting
In the 49 days since the last meeting of the Cabinet, a lot has changed. A new prime minister will chair the discussion, facing a room of new faces, with two participants representing completely new...
View ArticleHinkley: the dubious value of the Value for Money assessment
Today the Chancellor stated that the UK’s infrastructure decisions would be driven by “long-term economics, not short-term politics”. The Value for Money assessment for Hinkley Point C was one of his...
View ArticleIs the Government’s refusal to publish the Brexit cabinet committee secrecy...
Theresa May announced in July that she would chair a new ‘cabinet committee’ to manage Brexit. Since then, we’ve heard nothing. This is unusual – cabinet committee membership is normally a fairly...
View ArticleOverspends on electricity subsidies highlight the need to manage uncertainty
In some cases, uncertainty is unavoidable. In 2011, government decided to forecast and cap its spending on subsidies for low-carbon electricity (payments to wind farms, solar panels, etc). It knew that...
View ArticleCabinet committees finally published, after IfG FOI
In response to our FOI (see image), the Government today published the full list of cabinet committees and their membership. This is a welcome development. From a first glance, the make-up of the...
View ArticleReading between the lines of the Nissan deal
Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, gave the closest thing to a ‘running commentary’ on the Government’s Brexit negotiating position on Sunday. Pressed for...
View ArticleFour key principles for post-Brexit international trade
Theresa May’s trade mission to India will not have a significant impact on UK trade. Such visits tend to be more about political posturing than about hard-nosed economic policy. But the trip will focus...
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