New UK Policy Contribution

We have had published a short report to UK Government's Public Accounts Committee 'Projects: Their Dynamic Ambience'.  The report is concerned with the considerations for project governance in public sector infrastructure/mega projects.

1. We argue there are several reasons why poor decision making and governance can happen within government major projects and programmes.
2. Some factors are unique to government projects e.g. changes in administration whereas others are shared characteristics for all large-scale projects, programmes and portfolios within any sector.
3. Projects operate in a dynamic environment and stakeholders can change over time.  It is well known stakeholders have varied levels of power and interest in projects, but we argue they also have different motives which can cause them to act in various ways.
4. There can be conflicting motives within a government project.  Private sector expertise is often brought in to fill knowledge gaps.  The conflict is that these organisations are expected to maximise shareholder value, whereas this could be seen by the public as profiteering from the public purse.
5. This can cause stakeholders to hide motives.  We believe that this creates a negative ambience within the project and consequently can cause poor decision making and governance. 
6. The power and interest of stakeholders in the project is a key concern to the project commissioning organisation.. As the motives are dynamic so are the power and interest of different stakeholders.  The long length of government programmes mean that stakeholders often change for example turnover of staff or supplier failure.  As stakeholders change, the power and interest of this group can vary.  For the purpose of this paper, we have named this the Dynamic Ambience of Projects (DAP).
7. We actively encourage all potential motives, both imagined and realised, are discussed openly and document in an annually reviewed interest register.  This register should form part of core project governance and be considered as part of the annual review that National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) undertakes on all government major projects, programmes and portfolios.

To read the report in full, please use this link.

Written Evidence for DCMS Committee Inquiry on Major Cultural and Sporting Events

We have had a short report included within the Digital, Media, Culture and Sport Committee's inquiry on major cultural and sporting events.

In the report we provide evidence based on our extensive research of global sporting mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, and England's (as well as UK's broader) experience as hosts.

Our particular report can be downloaded as a pdf file here or viewed as html here

We are thrilled to have been included within the small group of experts whose reports were chosen to be included within the evidence base.

The inquiry examines the role of major cultural and sporting events in celebrating the UK’s national identity. Several events of international importance are due to be hosted in the UK in 2022, prompting this inquiry by MPs. 

The inquiry considers the challenges in the road ahead to the Festival UK* 2022, the start of the FIFA World Cup 2030 bidding process and the Commonwealth Games, among others. 

A key focus will be how the Government is using these events as opportunities to define what the UK means to both its citizens and the rest of the world. 

The Committee sought views on what is needed for these events to bring together the people and values of all four nations of the UK and the kind of impact they should aim to achieve.