Independent reviews can be a useful tool in the policymaking process. They can bring in expertise, bolster credibility and create political distance to help make progress on complex or contentious issues. This report looks at why reviews are commissioned and how they have been set up and run. It makes recommendations for reviewers on setting up, undertaking a review and landing recommendations, and for government on effectively commissioning them and systematically learning the lessons from past reviews.

Not all reviews translate into delivery. Some get the politics wrong and fail to generate momentum for reform; others are set up more as a political tool, to defer or avoid taking action; others still lack focus or take so long that any initial impetus is lost. Strikingly, there is no guidance for when to establish a review, or how to set up and run them. This report seeks to address that gap, taking lessons from past independent policy reviews.

This report focuses on independent policy reviews, and includes an analysis of a sample of those commissioned from 2010–24 in the United Kingdom.