This research has revealed the key characteristics needed in a modern public service, with priorities ranging across leadership, digital service delivery, workforce development, cross-departmental integration, and citizen trust. The report found that relationships between civil servants and ministers are becoming increasingly strained, with populist politics often making it difficult to speak truth to power.

This report outlines the challenges experienced in writing Australia’s and the UK’s official intelligence histories to date. It identifies why and how such histories are valuable for explaining and building the social licence for the work of intelligence agencies and advancing historical scholarship on an important but previously obscured element of democratic statecraft.

The new government is pursuing a different approach to governing, what it calls “mission-driven government”. Key to achieving this is a strong partnership with business, because without the resources and expertise of the private sector, it will not be possible to deliver the missions. However, this has been something that UK Governments have struggled to...

This essay examines what the concept of integrity in public life means, how the concept meets the reality of life in a political office and how this results in an ‘integrity mismatch’ between those in elected office and the public servants who work with them. Recommendations are made on how to mitigate the risks that...

This report shows how the UK Government's existing spending review process fails to align government spending with strategic priorities and long-term value for money. It recommends resetting the approach to spending reviews and introduces more effective ways of managing public spending.