A summary of recent news and views you might have missed
A new Downing Street Department
In a report led by Helen MacNamara, former deputy Cabinet Secretary, the Future Governance Forum has proposed a new Downing Street Department, separate from the Cabinet Office. The report criticises the current model as bloated and closed-off, arguing that a new and “cohesive organisation” would bring clarity, rhythm and cultural transformation. The Downing Street Department would be made up of four groups: Politics and Strategy, Policy and Delivery, Diplomacy and Security and No. 10 Private Office, with a Communications Team and a Political Office operating across the groups.
Source: Future Governance Forum – In Power 01
Reform’s plans for the Civil Service
The speech just before Christmas by MP Danny Kruger about Reform UK’s plans for the civil service – mainly about cutting ‘waste’ – was deemed “genuinely interesting” by the widely followed Whitehall blogger and former senior civil servant Martin Stanley.
Stanley wondered if Kruger was “playing to the gallery” in his remarks on civil service headcount reductions. “Civil servants are a popular target, to be sure, and there are probably too many of them”, he wrote in his Substack commentary. “But they represent a tiny proportion of the workforce”.
On the Reform UK MP’s wish to increase the performance-related pay bonus pot by 400%, Stanley’s reaction was also sceptical. “It’s very hard to identify which officials to reward when, say, crime rates fall. The Permanent Secretary? Or all the various policing, criminal justice, drug policy etc. teams in the Home Office and Justice Department – and what about police officers up and down the country? Those hard workers that don’t get rewarded very often feel aggrieved and discouraged”.
On the other hand, Stanley said he rather liked “the idea that across-the-board pay rises might be linked to ‘improvements in national economic growth or productivity, aligning Whitehall with the priorities of the country’. That might just work!” He also considered “sensible” Reform’s commitment to ‘reviewing each corporate function to determine whether it is something best left to departments or whether it should sit across Whitehall as a service to be used by departments as needed; but not both’.
Source: Martin Stanley’s Substack – ‘Storm and Sunshine’
Devolution and transport delivery
In 2025, the Institute for Government (IfG) established DevoLab, an initiative focused on exploring devolution, and the innovation and results that it delivers. The third DevoLab event in November brought together Susan Hinchcliffe (Leader of Bradford City Council), Huw Jenkins (Lead Officer for Transport Policy at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) and Richard Crabtree (Head of Mayoral Partnerships at Shadow Great British Railway) to discuss the impact of devolution on delivering improved transport in the UK.
Insights were shared on the importance of collaboration and connectivity for regional growth, with the West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s transport initiative and Mersey Rail being key case studies. It was highlighted that devolution allows delivery of services with a deep understanding of the areas in which they operate – in the case of Liverpool, transforming from ‘Miseryrail’ to one of the best operators in the UK and enabling the targeting of key growth areas. Such confidence and control has also led to enhanced investment and planning for the long-term in West Yorkshire, with tangible improvements to walking and cycling routes in the county. The next step, then, is to increase collaboration within and across the devolved regions.
Source: Institute for Government – DevoLab 3
The Tony Blair Institute’s Playbook for 2026
TheTony Blair Institute has released Reimagining the State: A Playbook for 2026, outlining five strategic priorities for the year ahead. These include defining an AI sovereignty strategy, unlocking national data reserves, upgrading to a more personalised model of public service delivery, becoming an “electrostate” and addressing safety challenges. The playbook calls for a complete overhaul of the state, rather than piecemeal reforms; data and AI are common themes throughout the recommendations, suggesting that AI will continue to be a key topic of discussion in 2026.
