Away from the despairing talk of ‘post-truth politics’, governments in countries such as the UK, Australia, Canada and France have been setting up important new institutions whose job is to reinforce evidence, and indeed truth, in...

When government implements far-reaching policies whilst ignoring the evidence there can be catastrophic consequences, writes Geoff Mulgan (Nesta). Private finance initiatives (PFIs) and public-private partnerships (PPPs) are in the spotlight again thanks to the collapse of...

Evidence should be more than a footnote in the revamped Ministerial Code, says David Walker, contributing editor for Guardian Public and chair of the ESRC’s Understanding Society board. Theresa May has revamped the Ministerial Code, the mini-bible...

Let’s have the courage to consider the harm that our interventions might do, as well as their intended impact, writes Dr Nick Axford (Plymouth University and Dartington Service Design Lab). Not a million miles away from...

On 7 November leaders of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the College of Policing and the Chartered College of Teaching met at the Royal Society to sign the Declaration on Evidence, written by Professor Jonathan...

Pippa Coutts (Alliance for Useful Evidence Research and Policy Manager) and Edward Orlik (What Works Team in the Cabinet Office) reflect on the What Works Network’s learning around what makes an evidence centre successful. The What...

Greg Wilkinson (Traversum) and Jonathan Breckon (Alliance for Useful Evidence) on the development of a new What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care. At the National Children and Adult Services conference in Bournemouth this morning, the...

Kerstin Hinds (Office for Statistics Regulation) on why the misuse of statistics must be challenged, to ensure that official figures can be used, and trusted, by us all. I am writing 10 days after our Chair,...

Professor Leighton Andrews (former Minister for Education and Skills, and Minister for Public Services, Welsh Government) on why it’s important that we combat the proliferation of ‘fake news’ and how it could be done. There has...

‘How Can Government Make the Best Use of Evidence?’ was the latest in a series run by the Alliance for Useful Evidence which has been working in Northern Ireland for two and a half years. Peter...

Back in 2015, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly released, for the first time, his instructions to all his ministers. Among these instructions, entitled mandate letters, one was particularly relevant to experimentation. It was addressed to the...

As the dust settles on the recent election, attention now turns to how parliamentarians will use their new mandate to implement their manifesto promises and the effectiveness of such policy-making in this new dispensation. In this...