Risk Management & Prevention

Public sector bodies must learn lessons to avert major failures, says UK standards watchdog

A new report from the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life has called for public sector organisations to get better at recognising and responding to early warning signs of […]

Good risk and brain food: Five minutes with Clive Martin, head of the UK Government Risk Profession

In this sister series to our ‘Five minutes with’ interviews, we share insights from the civil and public service leaders who will speak at our Innovation 2025 conference. Taking place in […]

Fixing Phoenix and government delivery culture: Five minutes with Alex Benay, Public Services and Procurement Canada

This interview with Alex Benay, associate deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), is part of a ‘Five minutes’ series featuring speakers from AccelerateGOV, taking place in Ottawa on […]
Sarah Munby, the permanent secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, speaking at Innovation 2024.

‘Hope is not a strategy’: how to change how civil servants think about risk

For individual civil servants, it’s entirely rational to minimise risk-taking, permanent secretary Sarah Munby told Innovation 2024 – but organisations must innovate and experiment if they are to succeed. How […]
A picture of firefighters

UK government risk register sets out 89 serious threats to national security and safety

The UK has set out the top threats the country faces, as part of what a senior civil servant said was an effort to provide a “comprehensive understanding of the […]
An illutration of public servants working together

All together now: why today’s risks demand a cross-government response

As Russia’s multi-faceted campaign against Ukraine demonstrates, security and civil threats can no longer be neatly separated. At the Global Government Summit, civil service leaders debated how to reform risk […]
Man wearing a hazardous protection mask and suit

US feds can sign on to COVID-19 hazard pay lawsuit; New Zealand public servants ‘fell short on neutrality’: management and workforce news in brief

Global Government Forum’s weekly digest of all the news you need to know but might have missed US federal officials can join COVID-19 hazard pay lawsuit A website has been […]

UK government needs a chief risk officer to boost resilience, experts say

The UK government should adopt a “three lines of defence” model and establish a chief risk officer (CRO) to improve the country’s resilience, experts have suggested. Future Proof, a new […]

Risk versus reward: why the public sector should fail more often

At Innovation 2020, senior leaders discussed the opportunities and challenges associated with commissioning and deploying new technologies. Governments’ risk-averse cultures are a barrier to developing public services, they agreed – […]

The power of prevention: de-risking the future

On environmental, social and economic issues, nations face a set of ticking time bombs – and unless they take preventive action, their people and public finances will suffer. At the […]