Joe Hill

Fantastic discussion about the construction industry and sector support at Labour Party Conference! Loved chairing this one.

VICTORY

This afternoon I’m in conversation with Kanishka Narayan MP at Labour Party Conference on what AI means for the UK.

12:45 - 13:45

Holiday Inn Express second floor, Brittania Two room. Follow the signs for @re-state.bsky.social!

In Liverpool for Labour Conference today? Planning on doing anything else?

🗑️SCRAP YOUR PLANS

🎙️we are hosting Andy Burnham for a live episode of Meetings with Mayors podcast with our @stkaye.bsky.social

⏰1445 to 1530.
🔓Outside the secure zone.
✉️DM me for details

Getting the machine learning: scaling AI in public services - Re:State AI has the potential to drastically transform government for the better, increasing efficiency and cutting costs. Other governments and the private sector are already seeing the benefits from using AI...

re-state.co.uk/publications...

Great to see the Government piloting AI coding assistants, which we @re-state.bsky.social recommended in our paper last year.

Satya Nadella estimates that 30% of Microsoft's code is written by AI, a huge efficiency boost. But until now, it was effective banned in government.

"The new needs friends"

Last week we launched our Leaders Network for senior civil servants. It's a real milestone in our work at @re-state.bsky.social to work with the next generation of leaders, and help them think outside the box about the future of Whitehall. I wrote about the launch here.

Can't wait to host Kanishka Narayan for an 'in conversation event' next Tuesday at Labour Party Conference!

If you're in Liverpool, come along and hear us talk about AI and the future.

Making the grade: Prioritising performance in Whitehall - Re:State

re-state.co.uk/publications...

A 50% increase in employees in HR in 20 years.

This trend explains a lot about how society has changed. Particularly in big organisations.

In our @re-state.bsky.socialpaper last year, we identified the same 50% increase in civil service HR, in just the years between 2016 and 2023.

As Karl Popper said "It is impossible to communicate in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.“

If you think that I am minimizing the catastrophic situation we Europeans are all in, trust me, I am not.

These are just a few ideas, there are many more. State capacity is continually undermined by a broken regulatory system. If we can fix it, we can build a stronger state and a better economy. More from us @re-state.bsky.social on this soon - standby!

5. Giving regulatory policy a stronger platform.

DBT is underpowered to corral the rest of government, in the face of strong vested interests in other departments which push for more regulation in their areas. Moving the agenda to the Cabinet Office, or even HMT, could give it more firepower.

4. Encouraging new companies to enter regulated markets. The Government should go beyond the use of sandboxes like the FCA’s, and create the kind of “n+1 regulator” for new innovations which John Fingleton has argued for in the past.

3. Rebuilding regulatory capacity. A Regulators Bill in the second session would be the right vehicle to rationalise the landscape of regulators, like the independent review of water has already recommended with Ofwat.

2. Bringing in regulatory budgeting approaches, to manage the total impact of regulation on business.

To win, the Government needs fresh ideas:

1. Strengthening the role of the Regulatory Policy Committee and impact assessments. Too many impact assessments show significant net negative present value, but still get passed.

But they’ve said one thing, and done another. Instead of less, we’ve had more regulations, and more regulators, because of that ratchet effect.

The Government has a good Action Plan, and a target of cutting cost by 25 per cent. Admittedly they target is focused on the narrowest definition of regulatory costs possible, but it’s a good start.

But that’s not new. Plenty of governments have tried to reform regulation in the past. Most have recognised that there’s a ratchet effect that works in regulation - it’s easy to create more, and hard to get rid of old regulation. Over time, the trend only goes one way.

It’s at the heart of all the growth measures government are pursuing - industrial strategy, housing and energy. Reforming the way these sectors are regulated is key to making them much more dynamic, attracting investment, and getting spades in the ground on new projects.

The Law of Rule: the regulation theory of everything - Re:State If you are looking for good news, you won’t find it in the British economy. Yesterday’s employment data release continues a familiar trend, with the number of payrolled employees falling, vacancies fa...

‘The Law of Rule’

The growth this government promised hasn’t arrived. But there’s one thing they could do which wouldn’t cost them anything - regulatory reform.

I’ve written a long read about what they could do, and why it matters. 🧵

re-state.co.uk/rethink/the-...

The hospital is a unique economic unit. Incredibly understudied, even in an NHS which has accidentally (and incorrectly) been plugging more and more resource into secondary care over the last two decades. Automation has huge potential.

Great new paper today from the team.

New paper out today on automation in hospitals!

Loved researching this - needless to say the efficiency gains of automating pharmacy are enormous yet embarrassingly rare!

Managing expectations: What do officials think of performance management in the civil service? Pat McFadden has said failure to tackle poor performers is “one of the biggest barriers” civil servants face. But what do CSW readers think of how ...

What do officials think of performance management in the civil service? Here's what we found in our Alternative People Survey with @re-state.bsky.social...

(Spoiler: one of the responses is “I have never seen talented colleagues so demoralised.”)

www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

Come work with us! An entry-level role going in our fantastic team, please share widely!

The drop in price in Coke, and increasing purity of supply, is definitely playing a role in *gestures at everything*.

Transforming the state through technology could be the lasting legacy of this Government. But they need to start now.

The next post in our Re:Shuffle series, I wrote an open welcome letter to Liz Kendall and Kanishka Narayan on ideas for DSIT

In the lates post in our Re:Shuffle series, I wrote an open letter to @darrenpjones.bsky.social on the priorities for his new role leading the Cabinet Office, and as Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister!

New business secretary should put deregulation top of his agenda Peter Kyle becomes the tenth business secretary in as many years - he should go where his predecessors didn't and genuinely cut red tape

The Government has talked the talk on regulatory reform, now it's time to walk the walk. With a new Business Secretary, I'm in City AM today arguing that Peter Kyle should boost growth by taking a fresh look at the Government's plans to cut red tape.

www.cityam.com/new-business...