LSE Public Policy Group

Page contents > New Research project for 2002-3 | Previous PPG work

The LSE Public Policy Group includes 16 academic staff with public policy expertise, mainly drawn from the Department of Government but with some members from other LSE Departments and some from outside the School (see LSE Public Policy Group|). Founded in 1988, the Group undertakes extensive consultancy work for major government and parliamentary agencies, for charities and interest groups, and for media organisations and companies in the following areas:

• Public policy research and evaluation studies
• Opinion polls, surveys and analysis (together with public presentation of results and media coverage)
• Policy forecasting, interviewing and strategy advice.
• Training/induction on the British political system and UK public administration for senior management personnel.

In addition, the Group publishes regular Papers in Public Policy.

New Research project for 2002-3

This new research covers Difficult Forms - How government interacts with citizens. It includes the first ever census of UK government paper forms, work with focus groups on improving 6 key forms, and research in 6 case study agencies - including Inland Revenue, UK Passport Service, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department for Education and Skills, the Drive Vehicle Licensing Authority and the Electoral Commission.

The new study involves four PPG researchers - Simon Bastow, Francoise Boucek, Patrick Dunleavy and staff from the School of Public Policy at UCL, led by Professor Helen Margetts. It has to be carried out under demanding NAO conditions, including the provision that all departments and agencies have to 'clear' anything written about them - that is, accept all that the report says about their operations. This requirement originates from the fact that the most important NAO 'value for money' studies go before the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons, which requires that NAO and the departments agree all issues of fact before their session with departmental permanent secretaries. Professor Dunleavy notes that:

'Given that no central department wants the least critical thing said about it in front of the Public Accounts Committee, this requirement certainly places a premium on PPG using the most rigorous research methods... approaches that are far more demanding than those required for (say) simply publishing normal academic books or articles. However, in conducting the research PPG members also have an unusual level of access to government files and documents - because we are in this aspect of our work acting as agents of the Comptroller and Auditor General'.

The Group's last study was published by NAO in late April 2002 and entitled Government on the Web 2 (London: The Stationary Office, 2002: HC 764, Session 2001-2). It reviewed progress across Whitehall towards Tony Blair's demanding e-government target that all public services should be on-line by 2005. The report is available for free download on the dedicated PPG site with UCL at Government on the Web| or from The UK National Audit Office|. The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons is expected to issue its report based on this study and on their cross-questioning of three permanent secretaries during October 2002.

Previous PPG work

Previously LSE Public Policy Group's work has come under three main headings:

1. The design and operation of new electoral systems has been a very hot topic in Britain. Professor Dunleavy and Professor Helen Margetts (of School of Public Policy, University College London) have advised Lord Jenkins Commission on the Voting System to help on the detailed design of a new system for electing the House of Commons, called 'AV Plus'. They have also carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on how proportional representation might be introduced into English local council elections, and for the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords on the design of systems for electing whole or part of a new 'senate'. Along with Professor Simon Hix the same team produced an influential report on the operations of the new European Parliament election system, and Professor Hix carried out a widely discussed forecast on a Europe-wide scale of the likely outcomes of the June 1999 elections. The voting systems designed by Professors Dunleavy and Margetts for electing the London Mayor and Assembly were used successfully in May 2000. They have carried out a research project for the Economic and Social Research Council analysing these elections, and are advising the GLA on changes in implementing the systems for the elections due in May or June 2004. The Mayoral electoral system, called the 'Supplementary Vote', has been adopted successfully for all other mayoral elections in around ten other towns and cities across England. Professor Dunleavy is also a member of an Electoral Commission Working Party on redesigning ballot papers in a more modernized way. 

2. How new information and communications systems (ICTs) are restructuring public administration was the theme of two major projects called "Government on the Web" carried out for the UK National Audit Office in 1998-9 and in 2001-2.

• The 1998-9 team involved Prof Dunleavy, Dr Margetts, Dr Matt Mulford, Dr Klaus Goetz, Steve John and Don McCarthy from the Department of Government, and several other members from elsewhere in LSE. It conducted a major investigation involving: survey of all UK government Web sites; surveys of government influentials; overviews of developments in the USA, Germany and Australia; interviews with leading private sector comparators; and extended case studies in the areas of social security policy, trade and industry, and central management of ICTs.
• The 2001-2 study was lead by Professor Dunleavy and Professor Helen Margetts (School of Public Policy, UCL) and carried out by a team including Simon Bastow Ruth Callaghan from PPG and Hala Yared (UCL). The study covered two new Whitehall ministries, HM Customs and Excise and the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions. The methods used included a census of all central government Web sites and comparison of progress since 1999; a census of all local government Web sites; case studies in the two departments and detailed analysis of policy-making in the Office of the e-Envoy; and research overseas in Australia, New Zealand, United States and Netherlands.
  All PPG's work with UCL on the progress of e-government is available for free download at the Web site.

3. Policy evaluation advice and review continued to be an important activity, with a focus on assisting public audit bodies and Department of Governments to review and improve their scrutiny and policy analysis - including work for the UK National Audit Office, the European Court of Auditors, the Irish Comptroller and Auditor general, the Canadian Audit Office, the New Zealand Controller and Auditor General, and he Cour des Comptes. Within the Department of Government the team of people involved included Professor Keith Dowding, Professor George Jones, Dr Mark Thatcher, and Jane Tinkler, as well as a wide range of other LSE staff in five departments, and a number of PPG members from outside LSE.