Incisive commentary from the IfG’s expert team on issues facing government and key ministerial decisions.
From analysis of key political events such as budgets and party conferences to snap responses to unexpected developments such as government reshuffles, our writers set out their views and analyse what government gets right, what it gets wrong, and what it can do better.
DVLA during the pandemic: hamstrung by competing priorities
The UK and devolved governments must make complex trade-offs more collaboratively or risk a repeat of DVLA’s pandemic troubles elsewhere.
The government must rethink its resettlement programme for Ukrainian refugees
The UK government’s response to Ukraine’s refugee crisis is cumbersome, confusing and in need of an urgent overhaul
The government would be wrong to wage another war on ‘quangos’
Government should be more specific about what it wants public bodies to deliver and where it can do without them.
Randstad episode shows government has still not learnt lessons from past procurement failures
It is right that schools will now take on the tutoring programme – but government must explain, and finally learn from, its latest contract stumble.
The Office for the Internal Market’s new analysis must help shape decisions
The Office for the Internal Market now needs to think about how it can influence the decisions on the system governing intra-UK trade
Rishi Sunak should stand up for the Office for Budget Responsibility
The chancellor should value the OBR, not brief against it
The underwhelming schools white paper is a missed opportunity
The white paper lacks vision, is full of technocratic tweaks, and has failed to take on the post-covid education recovery mission
The Department for Work and Pensions is not learning Covid lessons
Nick Timmins is far from impressed with the DWP’s response to an IfG/Social Security Advisory Committee paper
A tax strategy is needed but Rishi Sunak’s plan falls short
Rishi Sunak’s tax strategy has failed to deliver a shift towards a better designed system
How to fix Westminster's WhatsApp problem
To guard against poor decision making and reduced transparency, more coherent – and better enforced – guidance is needed