Nick Davies
Programme Director
Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget 2024 did little to address long-term problems in public services
With the dust settled on the budget, Nick Davies looks at what it means for public services.
Six lessons government should learn from the Post Office scandal
The handling of the Post Office scandal has wider lessons for government.
Performance Tracker 2023: Cross-service analysis
Public services are under considerable strain, with years of tight funding, staffing problems and underinvestment in capital all taking their toll.
How to approach insourcing and outsourcing
Key questions you should ask when making decisions on government outsourcing and insourcing.
Reunification of probation services
MoJ's preparations for the reunification of services and their transition back into the department.
All work
Performance Tracker 2020
The coronavirus crisis has resulted in backlogs across public services, including at record levels in the criminal courts.
Rishi Sunak's cash influx can’t protect public services from a second coronavirus wave
While extra funding has helped, the chancellor's package of financial support can’t reverse a decade of budget pressures
Outsourcing and privatisation
What is the difference between privatisation and outsourcing?
How fit were public services for coronavirus?
Failures in planning and funding cuts meant public services were not well prepared to handle the coronavirus crisis.
Matt Hancock’s speech on the future of healthcare is unlikely to survive contact with reality
The health secretary has delivered an ambitious speech on the future of health and social care but the policies proposed will be hard to implement
The criminal justice system
The UK criminal justice system is facing unprecedented court case backlogs and record prisoner numbers.
Government outsourcing: when and how to bring public services back into government hands
Bringing back services from the private sector to government hands can improve quality, increase reliability, and save money.
Ending the outsourcing of probation is the right decision
Transferring services back to the public sector is the right decision, though it should not be attempted overnight.
A coronavirus testing target is only valuable if it is part of a wider exit strategy
Increasing coronavirus testing capacity is useful, but the target will only be of value if is part of a wider exit strategy
Carillion: two years on
The Johnson government risks another Carillion if it doesn’t get behind the reforms put forward after the firm’s liquidation.