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One step closer to voter IDs at elections

19.07.18: Chloe Smith MP, Minister for the Constitution, evaluates the outcomes of the voter ID pilots conducted at the last local elections. We are one step closer to strengthening the integrity of our electoral system through requiring electors to...

Accountability in government: what next?

02.07.18: Benoit Guerin, senior researcher at the Institute for Government (IfG), explains why accountability in government needs improving and sets out what can be done. Government or policy failures share a common trait, namely accountability issue...

Can data save the future of children?

02.07.18: Ingrid Koehler, service innovation lead at the LGiU, takes a look at the untapped potential for a digital, data-led transformation of children’s services, weighing this up with the potential risks and challenges local councils could face. ...

Potholes: The scourge of the roads

02.07.18: Potholes are a scourge on our roads and can have much farther-reaching consequences than one might think. Re-routing just a small amount of existing fuel duty payments into local roads would go a long way to fixing the problem, writes Cllr Marti...

Stepping up to GovTech

02.07.18: Malcolm Harbour CBE, chair of the LGA working group on innovation in public procurement, gives us an update on the progress of the GovTech Catalyst challenges, and explains how successful projects will be rolled out. My last article in PSE...

HMRC: Staying one step ahead

25.06.18: Mike Fell, head of operational and cyber security at HMRC, lists the pioneering ways through which the organisation has been successfully stamping out cybercrime from malicious fraudsters. Cyber security remains one of the most serious thre...

The great training robbery

25.06.18: Tom Richmond, senior research fellow at Reform, looks under the hood of the government’s apprenticeship policies and analyses the damage inflicted by the apprenticeship levy on the public sector. Both the 2015 and 2017 Conservative Pa...

Ultra-low emission buses: a clear vision for clean air

25.06.18: Earlier this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the £48m Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme, which transport minister Nusrat Ghani says will go a long way to cleaning up our air and eliminating carbon emissions. From bustli...

In cybercrime, there is no classic victim – and no common attacker

25.06.18: When it comes to cyber security, we are only as strong as our weakest link. PSE’s Jack Donnelly explores how safety in the digital age has drastically changed the landscape of crime, and looks at what the public, private and academic secto...

Grenfell, one year on

18.06.18: In the year since the Grenfell Tower disaster, the LGA has been working tirelessly to ramp up fire safety regulations and ban ‘desktop’ fire safety tests in order to prevent such a tragedy happening again, writes Lord Porter, chairma...

Brexit's long shadow over devolution

18.06.18: The EU Referendum and the stop-start Brexit negotiations have left a looming shadow of uncertainty over devolution in the UK, writes Anthony Salamone, research fellow at strategic a at the Scottish Centre on European Relations. Brexit is un...

Decisions, decisions

18.06.18: The true social value of procurement comes from asking challenging questions and thinking outside the box, argues Melissa Bell, sustainable procurement manager at the YPO. Everyone wants more for their money – and this is even more so...

Finding the balance

18.06.18: Douglas White, head of advocacy at the Carnegie UK Trust, evaluates the risk-benefit relationship of data sharing within the public sector, highlighting the importance of transparency. Data is in the news a lot at the moment. With GDPR comi...

On a cliff edge: The Barnett Formula

14.06.18: David Phillips, associate director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, gives his analysis of the Barnett Formula post-Brexit and asks: how will we replace EU funding to the devolved governments and local areas of the UK? The UK is due to...

The digital journey so far

08.05.18: Michael Sage, digital services group manager at Chelmsford City Council, outlines the authority’s journey towards becoming digitally independent. Back in 2016 we decided we had had enough of being tied into expensive contracts with th...