IfG Events

Procurement accounts for around a third of all government expenditure – but in recent years it has been hit by a number of negative headlines. Issues with purchasing PPE in the pandemic, and more recently the Post Office scandal, have led to questions about how to hold government and suppliers to account when things go wrong. The soon to be implemented Procurement Act includes measures to improve...

The government sees AI as an engine of innovation and productivity, including within government itself. But when faced with constrained public finances and a profusion of ways to use AI, where should government focus to achieve results? Could faster progress be made?  This event brought together politicians and civil society representatives to discuss how government can and should make the best us...

The Labour government has set ambitious public service objectives. But with poor performance across many services and limited scope to substantially increase funding, improving public sector productivity will be critical. However, public service productivity fell both during and after the pandemic. And many of the drivers of poor productivity, such as underinvestment in capital, have been a proble...

The Labour party has put prevention at the centre of its plans for public services, with the new government’s public spending audit signaling greater ‘investment in prevention’. But while governments of all stripes have called for more focus on prevention, they have often found it hard to deliver. In recent years, funding of public services has increasingly shifted away from preventative intervent...

Through allocating almost half of national income, often over multiple years, spending reviews are the key vehicle through which a government can set its overarching strategy in motion. However, the approach taken in recent years has been ineffective. It has often failed to provide adequate certainty, incentivise cross-government cooperation, make the most effective use of evidence, and successful...

Many of the government’s objectives, including improving the performance of public services, will rely on good investment. But current plans imply investment spending plans will be tight. This event explored how the Labour government can ensure it invests well in public services.    Speakers: Rt Hon Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Anita Charlesworth, Director of Research and the R...

After a series of awkward stories over gifts and donations, how can Labour reassert its credentials around upholding public standards - and avoid standards issues distracting from its wider agenda for government?    This event will explore how key reforms such as the creation of the long-promised Ethics and Integrity Commission and establishment of the Modernisation Committee will work and what el...

Decarbonising the power system by 2030 and accelerating to net zero is one of Labour's five missions. But achieving this goal means moving faster than the previous government and overcoming barriers like the availability of skilled workers while engaging with distributional questions to ensure a just transition. Building on recent IfG research, this event looked at what the new government has done...

What needs to be done to embed Labour's missions-led approach into the way that government works? How should No.10, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury be reformed to help deliver long term policy objectives? What is the role of ministers in mission-led government? And how can mission-led government mean more than a few new committees in Whitehall – and instead, help the centre to address long ter...

With Labour winning the 2024 election on a pledge to widen and deepen devolution across England, this event discussed how and why the government should make a reality of this commitment. The panel considered the role that metro mayors and local government can play in helping Labour to achieve its economic missions, which specific powers should be devolved, and how institutions such as universities...

Labour has inherited an economy that has struggled with low growth and weak productivity for most of the past 15 years. The government has proposed a new industrial strategy, sometimes called ‘securonomics’, which it says will help to deliver high-tech industries, boost lagging regions and support UK companies to be global champions in growth sectors. And it plans to establish a new Industrial Str...

Britain’s housing market is unfair. House prices are over eight times average earnings. Social housebuilding rates have sharply declined, and homelessness is high. How can the Liberal Democrats ensure the government delivers the sustainable and affordable housing Britain needs? Speakers: Lee Dillon MP, Member of Parliament for Newbury Max Wilkinson MP, Member of Parliament for Cheltenham Anna Clar...

Civil servants are already using AI for a variety of purposes, from summarising and analysing data to drafting correspondence. The new Labour government sees AI as a route to greater productivity and growth, both within government and beyond.   Bringing together the themes of two private roundtables hosted by the Institute for Government in partnership with Scott Logic, this public event explored...

The biggest challenges UK government faces, from tackling low economic growth to addressing regional inequalities, adapting to climate change and transforming public service performance, will need to be addressed by harnessing the insight and expertise of people from outside government itself. So what can be done to bring more external expertise into the heart of government?    This event will exp...

The government’s approach to procurement is entering a new era. Significant reforms to the UK's post-Brexit procurement legislation, set out in the Procurement Act, will redefine how public sector organisations acquire goods, services, and human resources as new rules and opportunities emerge. So with almost £400bn a year spent on public procurement, how ready are public bodies and suppliers for t...

Spending reviews, which decide how at least half a trillion pounds of annual public spending should be allocated across different public services, are one of the most consequential processes in government. The new government has announced a new review, to conclude in Spring 2025, that will determine departmental budgets for much of the current parliament. But how should ministers choose how to pri...

The Labour government will have been in power for nearly two months by the time parliament returns on 2 September. We have already seen a King’s Speech, a major statement on the public finances, an overhaul of the planning system, big plans for clean power – and more. So what have we learned since Keir Starmer became prime minister – and what comes next for government and British politics?   Minis...

A daunting public services to-do list awaits Keir Starmer and his newly elected Labour government. Most services are performing worse than on the eve of the pandemic and substantially worse than in 2010, but future funding is set to be tight. Ministers will need to make best use of existing budgets and carefully choose targets for any additional investment. So what are the most pressing public ser...

The chancellor has set out her audit of public spending to MPs. Revealing what she calls a multi-billion pound “black hole” in the government finances, Rachel Reeves has vowed “to fix the mess we inherited” from the Conservative government. So do these sums add up and what do they mean for public services? Should this inheritance come as a surprise to Labour and what does it mean for the party’s m...

Since 2010 the UK’s capital spending on prisons, hospitals and schools has been consistently lower than many other countries – leading to crumbling buildings, creaking IT and a lack of equipment. But the size of the budgets is only part of the problem – these budgets have also been badly spent. This will continue to hamper public service performance unless the new government takes a new approach t...

The King’s Speech set out Sir Keir Starmer’s legislative agenda for government and revealed his priorities for the parliamentary session. Following the State Opening of Parliament, the IfG expert team – with guest Chris White, who for half a decade was responsible for managing and planning the last government’s legislative programme – explored what the King’s Speech reveals about Keir Starmer’s pl...

A general election brings the appointment of a whole host of new ministers, and on day one in government they begin a job like no other. Former shadow ministers may be familiar with their new policy portfolio, but ministerial life is very different to opposition. The switch from leading a small team to heading up departments with hundreds or thousands of civil servants, and from issuing press rele...

Keir Starmer used his first speech as prime minister to declare that the “work of change begins immediately”. But how will the Labour government approach the complex policy challenges that it has inherited? And how will it start making progress on new promises?  From freeing up space in crowded prisons to turning around struggling public services, delivering clean energy and kickstarting economic...

This Friday will be day one in government for the winner of the general election. But there will be no chance for anyone to catch their breath after a gruelling campaign. The job begins at once. So what should civil servants be braced to expect as ministers are appointed to their new roles? How can special advisers best prepare for that frenetic first 24 hours? And what actually awaits a prime min...

Manifesto launches are a significant moment in any general election campaign, and Thursday’s publication of Labour’s manifesto is a big chance for Keir Starmer to set out how his party would govern if it wins the general election on 4 July. So how plausible are the manifesto’s plans? What are the big dividing lines with the Conservatives? How would a Labour government pay for public services? And...