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IFG - Policy reviews are valuable – but only if the government sets them up for success
The government’s approach to launching independent policy reviews is too ad hoc, inefficient and inconsistent, warns a new IfG report
The government’s approach to launching independent policy reviews is too ad hoc, inefficient and inconsistent, warns a new Institute for Government report which calls on the Cabinet Office to publish guidance for future reviewers.
Keir Starmer has now expressed scepticism about the value of reviews despite his government launching more than a dozen independent policy reviews, but Reviewing reviews: Lessons from past independent policy reviews, sets out when reviews should be established, how they should be run, and what reviewers and ministers can do to ensure their findings lead to change.
Drawing on interviews with former lead reviewers and a study of past reviews, the new IfG report sets out recommendations for future reviewers – on how to set up a review and land its recommendations – and the government – on when to commission a review.
The report also finds that this government has almost exclusively chosen reviewers with a public service or academic background, whereas previous governments have drawn more heavily on those with business expertise.
The IfG’s recommendations for reviewers include:
- Understanding the government’s motivation for setting up the review by speaking to the relevant special advisors and civil servants from the outset;
- Ensuring the review has enough staff with the right skills, as under-resourcing can be a tactic used by departments to frustrate reviews;
- Agreeing a feasible timetable from the start and be realistic about the time and effort involved;
- Engaging with internal as well as external stakeholders, including opposition parties, to make sure government is not surprised by recommendations;
- Consider reporting 6-12 months after the review on whether recommendations have been put into practice
The IfG’s recommendations for government include:
- Before commissioning a review, deciding whether the loss of control entailed by an independent review is worth it for the external credibility it brings;
- Selecting a reviewer with the credibility and capability to conduct the review successfully;
- Departments keeping in touch with the reviewer throughout;
- Adopting a more systematic approach to learning from past reviews and guiding future reviews on how to be effective.
IfG senior fellow and report author Jill Rutter said:
“Policy reviews, done well, can break logjams on really difficult questions giving ministers space and evidence to enable them to take a fresh look at hard questions and benefit from engaging external expertise. Ministers should regard them as a useful way of making policy”
IfG researcher and report author Ben Paxton added:
“The current ad hoc approach to reviews is inefficient; reviewers and review teams too often have to start from scratch in a way that wastes time and effort and means government may not get the most out of these reviews. Reviews should be part of this government's plans for reform, but ministers must learn the lessons from reviews that have succeeded, and failed, in the past.”
An IfG study of a sample of 66 independent reviews commissioned between 2010 and 2024 reveals that:
- Almost three quarters of lead reviewers were male (48/66), while only around a quarter were female (16/66).
- Over half of reviews took less than a year from commission to publication (38/66), while two reviews lasted over four years.
- The most common professional backgrounds of reviewers was politics (15), law (11) and business (9).
