This report is one of three that the Institute for Government is releasing as part of its research into policy making in government. It provides both an in-depth look at attempts to reform policy making over the last fourteen years and draws on both interviews with senior civil servants and ministers, in the last government, to look at the experience of policy making. It also draws on our analysis of government’s own evaluations of policy, our ‘Policy Reunions’ looking at the factors behind policy success and the extensive academic literature on policy making. As such, it forms the evidential and analytic base for our recommendations report, Making Policy Better.

This report is largely the work of the Institute for Government’s Senior Researcher Michael Hallsworth. In its early stages, the research was led by former Institute Fellow, Simon Parker, and in the later stages was overseen by the Institute’s Programme Director, Jill Rutter. It needs to be read alongside our working paper, System Stewardship, which looks at the future of policy making.