Much like what occurs in Australia, this paper argues that while creating a new department can be useful to focus on a high priority issue or to bring together related policy areas, most changes in the United Kingdom are rushed through either to send a political signal or to reward allies.

The new Speaker of the House of Commons – the 158th in its history – will be elected on Monday. This paper suggests that the candidates campaigning to be John Bercow’s successor must set out a vision for how they would run the Commons as an institution and represent it to the outside world.

As efforts to reach a withdrawal agreement with the EU reach a crescendo, government and business are also preparing frantically for the prospect of a no-deal Brexit. This report discusses the variety of harms that the government may want to address, and highlights some of the challenges it faces in developing a response.

This report looks at how Northern Ireland has functioned without ministers for nearly 1000 days. It provides an analysis of the history of power-sharing, how Northern Ireland has operated since the collapse of the executive in 2017, the consequences of these arrangements, and how a future executive could be supported once restored.

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.