Campaign: Data for evaluation

The Government can unlock real value in its use of public money if it evaluates policy properly - but first it must collect the right data.

What’s the problem?

Evaluating Government interventions should be a central to the operations of Whitehall. Robust evaluations of public spending can tell us what’s worked and what hasn’t, inform future decision-making and can be used to detect potential harms, such as fraud or waste.

But evaluating policy is tough when there isn’t enough data to tell you what’s going on.

All too often, public spending takes place without the Government commissioning the data it needs to understand impact. This lack of evaluation all contributes to failing policy, extra cost and the Government repeatedly making the same mistakes.

The opportunity

The solution is pretty straightforward: make metrics a requirement. Require plans for operational projects to include consideration of metrics and data, and make programme budget approval conditional on these elements being in place.

This would help the Government get more value for its money, and allow policies and services to improve faster than would otherwise be possible.

If you want to support our work on this campaign, please get in touch at contact@centreforpublicdata.org.