Rebecca McKee

@rebeccamckee

Associate Director at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk working in our Ministers team with special interest in parliament, ministerial leadership, private office and (sometimes) public inquiries. Former academic and citizens' assembly organiser 🫶

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Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· 25d

New announcement on machinery of government changes today including moving local growth and devo strategy from MHCLG and local economic growth from HMT into No 10 North Could be a great opportunity to get to grips properly with local growth funding slightly removed from all the usual incentives

Text says "To ensure places are at the very heart of government strategy, the Prime Minister is establishing No.10 North as the engine room of devolution and good growth in every postcode, across government and the wider economy. This will include targeted transfers of overarching strategic functions: moving local economic growth and devolution strategy from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and local economic growth policy from HM Treasury directly into No 10 North. These departments will continue to exercise some remaining functions in these areas. This ensures that local economic growth policy and regional empowerment are no longer isolated from one another, establishing No 10 North as the dominant driver of the UK’s economy."

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· 25d

Andy Burnham is holding his first cabinet meeting as prime minister and there are a few new faces around the table. Key appointments were confirmed late yesterday, so we've updated our @instituteforgovernment.org.uk chart to show where we currently stand with ministerial appointments 👇

A chart setting out confirmed and new appointments in Andy Burnham's cabinet as of 12:30pm on 21st July 2026. It shows all the cabinet positions have been filled, some ministers of state have been confirmed but others are yet to be confirmed as either staying in post or leaving.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Jun 12

This builds on @instituteforgovernment.org.uk work on how ministers can lead effective responses to crises We set out 6 key roles + how to prepare for a crisis and learn lessons after NI and UK ministers all have a role to play, but these will be different as policing and justice are devolved

This graphic sets out the six key roles that ministers have during a crisis: decision maker, problem solver, convenor, team leader, cross-government leader, and communicator

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 14

For comparison the other new bill being introduced today is the steel industry nationalisation bill

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 14

On the order paper for today. Do we think Wes Streeting is a bit distracted and forgot to submit his homework on time?

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 13

For those of you who are interested and I know there are at least one or two of you. It looks as if the government doesn't need to introduce a new hybrid bill for the northern powerhouse rail project. It plans to amend the High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill instead.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 13

And because it's always nicer to visualise things - this handy chart compares this King's Speech with others back to 1997. It's a big one, especially as it's not this government's first parliamentary session.

Column chart showing the number of bills announced at the speech from the throne (King or Queen's Speech) from 1997 to 2026. It shows the most recent King's Speech in 2026 had 37 bills which is high in comparison. Only overtaken by 2005 (50), 2022 (38), and 2024 (40).

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 13

For a longer version of these thoughts listen back to BBC 5 Live with Naga Munchetty, you can catch me from 13:17 today www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 11

There are pros and cons for the government in having a record number of Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs) on the books The cons obviously include there being more people who can quit the role and cause quite the headache...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· May 5

How do you restore and reimagine a parliament for the future? It is a huge project, if done well it could reinvigorate a democratic institution but what does R&R mean for parliament, staff, industry, suppliers and the public? Join us next Monday! www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/what-n...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Apr 29

The bills carried over include the Public Office (Accountability) Bill aka the Hillsborough Law, a bill to place “a legal duty of candour” on public servants and authorities. The bill also contains provisions that will impact the way public inquiries are run and is a priority for Keir Starmer

A graphic that shows what stage the five carry over bills are at - all give are still in the Commons and have yet to reach report stage.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Apr 29

The government has passed 30 of the 40 bills announced in the King’s Speech 5 have been carried over and 5 have not yet introduced Of those not introduced 4 were draft bills – proposed legislation published for scrutiny before being introduced - 2 of those have been published

A graphic showing the status of King's Speech bills at the end of the 2024 - 26 parliamentary session. It shows 30 have completed all stages, 5 are carried over and 5 not introduced.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Apr 13

The Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs has officially launched today - unusually it has been given a timeframe (3 years) and a budget (£65m) The timeline is ambitious, on average public inquiries take just over 2 years but the length of inquiries has been increasing esp for complex inquiries

A scatter chart showing the length of public inquiries from 1990 to 2025. The chart includes both statutory and non-statutory inquiries, but only those that have been completed, updated in April 2026. The trend line shows the length of time taken by public inquiries is increasing. It also highlights outliers including the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, the Hyponataemia Inquiry, the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry and the Infected Blood Inquiry which each took over 3000 days to complete.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Apr 2

Thankfully my fantastic colleagues and co authors @timdurrant.bsky.social & @meganbryer.bsky.social are keeping things going, while I've escaped across the border to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and in defiance of the forecast it's not snowing!!

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Mar 17

In our New Deal for England report we recommended pilot tax sharing with some combined authorities as a first step of fiscal devolution We also recommended devolving a small share of NICs (tax most closely linked with local employment) as the best direct fiscal incentive for new jobs locally

A screenshot from an Institute for Government report that says: Pilot ‘tax sharing’ with some combined authorities as a first step of fiscal devolution. There is good evidence that associates tax devolution more strongly with improved economic outcomes than devolution of policy levers alone,25 which at least in part reflects the additional incentives governments have to drive growth when they receive some of the proceeds from it. The UK’s tax system is unusually centralised, and tax devolution has been a natural progression of devolution in Scotland and Wales over the past decade.26 There are risks to devolving taxes, especially if key mechanisms like how to redistribute between richer and poorer areas are not thought through. Towards the end of the next parliament, or early in the one after, the government should introduce pilots of tax revenue devolution (also known as tax assignment), in which a small share of tax revenue raised within a region is devolved, but rates and bands of the tax are controlled nationally. We specifically recommend the devolution of a small share of revenue from National Insurance contributions (NICs), as this is the tax most closely linked to local employment, and therefore the best way by which combined authorities can be given a direct fiscal incentive for the creation of new jobs within their region. This could give local leaders a substantial source of stable revenue: for example, devolving just 5% of NICs revenue on a per capita basis would amount to around £350 million of flexible resource for a large authority such as Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Mar 17

A genuinely big announcement on English devolution from Rachel Reeves today! As we at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk alongside others have argued fiscal devolution was a missing piece of the puzzle in the government's devolution white paper.

A Guardian Live blog entry that says: Reeves asks officials to draw up plans for fiscal devolution
Boom! Rachel Reeves then tells her audience that she has asked the Treasury to work with mayors and businesses to develop a roadmap for future fiscal devolution.

This plan will be published at this year’s budget.

It will set out plans to give regional leaders control of a share of some national taxes – which Reeves points out have long been allocated by central governments. It will include income tax, she suggests.

The chancellor says these reforms will begin with places which have the greatest capacity to deliver them and the greatest potential to benefit.

She insists that it is “not about new taxes, and it’s not about higher tax”, promising “I will not ask taxpayers to pay more”.

These reforms will be fiscally neutral, focused on sharing and retaining a portion of existing revenues with the places that generated them, she says.

Reeves promises:

These reforms will represent a permanent transfer of power and resources, not another exercise in local ambition.

Taxpayers will be able to see what is being delivered with their money and hold local leaders to account for the results, she insists.

She calls it “a genuine break with the past”, calling it:

A generational opportunity for Britain’s regions to make their own future.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Mar 10

Really interesting to see more detail on how the 'people's panel' will be used 2 stage process alongside a public consultation The government is using a lot of the 'right' language to explain what this is and set reasonable expectations about what it will do - seems well thought through...!

This exercise will be conducted in two stages. The first will involve 8 weeks of open engagement – running from 10 March to 5 May – where anyone who wants to take part can share their views. Alongside an online engagement platform, we will support local conversations and events across the UK. This includes roadshows, roundtables, as well as resources to help communities run their own discussions in ways that work for them.

In the second stage, which will follow the open engagement, we will bring together a broadly representative group of 100-120 people from across the UK to take part in a ‘People’s Panel for Digital ID’ – an in-depth deliberative engagement process. This group will hear views shared during the open engagement stage, discuss different perspectives, and openly debate areas of disagreement. We will support them to work together to weigh the trade-offs involved, explore common ground and develop shared recommendations for government. This group will not make decisions, but their recommendations – shaped by views shared in the open engagement phase – will help to inform next steps.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Jan 16

For anyone interested in MPs' staff (me!) this is very interesting, there is no central list of job titles / number of staff working for MPs unless you FoI IPSA for the data - so will this mean we will have a full list of job titles by MP?!! Unsure...

This screen shot highlights the line 'nil returns be required but need not be published'

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Jan 16

Not knowing who, by name, the entries relate to will make it harder to clock non-registration of interests. The Committee acknowledges this but on balance decided security concerns mean the reduction in transparency is 'proportionate' Note some disagreement between members & the Commissioner on this

We note the opinion of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that our proposal reduces transparency and accountability in the sense that the public will no longer be able to see the individual names of Members’ staff.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Jan 16

Expanding the list raises security and safety concerns for constituency staff who are not currently identifiable by name, unless they or the MP choose to do so. The decision of the committee is that in expanding the list, they remove staff names from the list and replace them with job titles.

recommendation We have made the following decision in relation to future publication of the Register of Interests of Members’ Staff: To require that all staff with a parliamentary network account and/ or a parliamentary pass should have a register entry but that the names of all staff be replaced with their job titles, and that nil returns be required but need not be published.

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Jan 6

The government set up 7 new public inquiries in 2025 Which means as we start 2026 there are 27 public inquiries currently underway (21 statutory inquiries) This is a huge number, at the start of 2016 there were only 10 public inquiries ongoing

A line chart from the Institute for Government of the number of concurrent public inquiries monthly 1990 to September 2025 where it shows three peaks of 15 in June 2010, 19 in September 2023 and 27 in December 2025

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Dec 19

Criticisms focus on the cost and length of inquiries, but reform must address the underlying issues that drive these delays and costs. In our report we identify a set of underlying problems:

Bullet point list
Decisions to establish inquiries are political, but ministers need better support to make these decisions well
Inquiries often begin without a clear, shared understanding of their core purpose
Ministers set unrealistic expectations by over-promising what an inquiry can do
Low public trust makes statutory inquiries the perceived ‘gold standard’ of inquiry
Ministers have struggled to secure chairs for some inquiries
Limited systematic knowledge-sharing between inquiries means they tend to lean on precedent
The combination of leaning on precedent, risk aversion, and political sensitivity discourages innovation

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Dec 19

The government’s announcement of seven new inquiries this year means a record 27 are currently underway They're costing more too - since 2005, completed inquiries have cost over £730m. The Covid-19 Inquiry alone has spent £192m and will soon surpass the record £200m spent on the Saville Inquiry

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Dec 5

I think we have a solution...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Dec 4

I've been fortunate enough this week to speak on two panels on topics I really care about and with excellent co-panellists. My job is great I love it. But...my main reflection is ohmygod Rebecca why on earth can't you keep your hands in one place?!

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Dec 2

This isn't unique to the covid inquiry but it does highlight some key issues - this lunchtime I'll be joined by an excellent panel to discuss the covid inquiry & whether inquiries are a good way for the government to learn lessons www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/govern...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Nov 20

The UK Covid Inquiry module 2 report is out today. It covers core governance and decision making - including the civil service and political response. Join us tomorrow lunchtime for an expert @instituteforgovernment.org.uk view on the findings www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/covid-...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Oct 31

A little sneak peak of what we've got covered - all in handy, easy to read explainer formats!

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Oct 31

Have you seen @ifgacademy.bsky.social Support for MPs webpages, packed with super useful guides and explainers to help MPs understand parliament and government? Perfect for MPs and their staff! www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ifg-academy/...

Rebecca McKee@rebeccamckee· Oct 20

The Leeds NHS Trust inquiry is the 5th public inquiry to be launched this year, taking the total number of public inquiries currently ongoing across the UK to 25 3 of these are sponsored by DHSC (Leeds, Thirlwall & Lampard inquiries)