Boris Johnson is said to be ready to reshuffle his ministerial team in February – this report warns that he should then keep his ministers in place. Excessive ‘churn’ means they never get properly on top of their brief. This has undermined the effectiveness of UK government in recent decades.

The role of external suppliers in delivering services to the public and to government has been expanded significantly over the past forty years. This report assesses where outsourcing has worked and where it has not, and why, and makes recommendations on how to improve the way government contracts out services.

This report sets out how government can improve the way it uses academic evidence and expertise in forming policy. It forms part of a project on how to build a better relationship between government and academia.

This report sets out how government can improve the way it uses academic evidence and expertise in forming policy. Policy making is a core task for government. But to make policy well, government needs to be open to external ideas, including from academics.