We know that a solid evidence base should be essential for policymaking across all areas. The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth examines which polices are most effective at increasing local economic growth and supports policymakers to produce more high quality evidence to better guide future decision making and policy effectiveness. Professor Henry Overman, […]
Don’t panic! Hancock’s Half Hour and the anti-advocacy clause
An amendment to charities’ freedom in how they use Government grants has set many hares running in higher education. But, asks Andy Westwood, what does it mean and do we need to panic? Hancock’s half hour Matthew Hancock, the Cabinet Office minister has introduced a new ‘anti advocacy’ clause to be inserted into all new […]
Taking the Rap
The use of rap lyrics to suggest guilt or bad character is prejudicing criminal trials, warns Dr Eithne Quinn. In April 2014, Nicky Jacobs was found not guilty of the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, London. A key piece of evidence in the trial almost 30 years […]
Will new enforcement tool help the Serious Fraud Office secure its reputation and ‘justice’?
It’s been a difficult few years for the UK’s beleaguered Serious Fraud Office (SFO), writes Dr Nicholas Lord. As the authority responsible for the investigation and prosecution of corporate corruption in international business, it’s been blighted by a lack of prosecutions, collapsed cases, failed investigations and data loss. But while the introduction of Deferred Prosecution […]