Tim Knox

Tim Knox is the editor at the Effective Governance Forum and the former director of the Centre for Policy Studies

Tuesday

Tim Knox

Is the ‘Office for Value for Money’ just another quango?

From our UK edition

Who can possibly be against any attempt by any government of any political colour to get better value of money? After all, public sector productivity – which has been basically flat over the last 25 years despite all the advantages of new technology – is at heart a question of doing just that. So we should all welcome that Rachel Reeves in her first budget set up the Office for Value for Money in the very heart of the Treasury. With its similar title to the Office for Budget Responsibility (which has of course been criticised for taking over responsibility for the budget), perhaps here at last would be a tough-minded approach to securing value for money from government spending.

Tuesday

Tim Knox

How to fix the NHS

From our UK edition

That the NHS is in intensive care appears to be beyond doubt. The health service in England needs 12,000 doctors and 50,000 nurses and midwives, and waiting lists are expected to rise to 9.2 million by March 2024. The question now is what to do. It’s a question that has been asked before, and the answers have been poor. One more heave at reform, a task force here, a task force there, another few billion all over the place and all will be well, so the defenders of the NHS claim. What they overlook, however, is that there have been more than a dozen major reform programmes over the past 30 years, yet our health outcomes remain dismal.

Wednesday

Tim Knox

The NHS is failing us all

From our UK edition

While MPs compete to shout the loudest in their support of the UK’s health services (‘save our NHS!’), the British public has fallen out of love with it. More people are now dissatisfied with the NHS than are happy with it. This is true across all ages, income groups, sexes and voters of different political parties. Support for the NHS is now at the lowest level for a quarter of a century. The public is right, the NHS is just not that good. Compare it, as I have done in a new report published today, with the health systems of 19 similarly well-off countries and it is hard to come to any other conclusion. UK life expectancy is down at 17 out of these 19 comparable nations. Our cancer survival rates are shockingly low.

Monday

Tim Knox

The secret courts bill won’t enhance justice or make us more secure

From our UK edition

'That Britain allowed itself to be dragged into complicity in extraordinary rendition – the kidnap and torture of individuals by the state – is a disgrace. That, nearly a decade later, the extent and limits of Britain’s involvement are still unknown is almost as shocking.' So opens  a new report, Neither Just nor Secure, by Andrew Tyrie MP and Anthony Peto QC which shreds the Coalition’s Justice and Security Bill, a Bill which this week to go into Committee Stage in the House of Commons. The Bill has already had a rough ride through Parliament. Deservedly so, for it is damaging legislation that will neither enhance justice nor make us more secure.

Monday

Tim Knox

Soon we will all be paying £1,000 a household for gold plated public sector pensions

From our UK edition

Public sector pensions are grossly unfair. At a time when private sector pensions have collapsed, not least because of Gordon Brown’s infamous pensions raid on private pensions, public sector pensions have continued to be unreformed. The coalition was quick to recognise that this must change. And by appointing former Labour Cabinet Minister John Hutton to come up with suggestions for reform, there is a chance of some cross-party agreement in this difficult and sensitive area. In his recent Centre for Policy Studies report, leading pensions expert Michael Johnson gets a grip on the problem. And, to continue a favourite Coffee House theme, how is it best measured?