A strategy for Analysis in Government 2025 to 2028
Our vision:
The analytical community will provide better outcomes for the public by providing the best and most efficient analysis to inform decision making.
1. Foreword by Emma Rourke
In an era defined by rapid change, complexity, and unprecedented access to data, the UK government’s ability to make informed effective decisions has never been more critical. High quality analysis is at the heart of this work through supporting sound policy, efficient delivery, and meaningful evaluation. This strategy sets out our collective vision for how government analysts will rise to today’s challenges and prepare for those ahead. How we do this is set out in our priorities for change which reaffirm our commitment to using our expertise to shape policy and services that improve lives:
1. We will bring multi-disciplinary, impactful analysis to the government’s priorities, including the missions and civil service reform
2. We will be innovative, driving efficiency across our function, the civil service and society, applying artificial intelligence, automation, and the best analytical tools and methods
3. We will work across boundaries, to harness the power of data, including data sharing, linkage and interoperability.
4. Our people are central to our future direction; we will ensure we attract, retain and support analytical careers and development
I am proud of the strength and diversity of our analytical community spanning actuaries, economists, geographers, operational researchers, social researchers, statisticians, analysts within the Government Digital and Data profession and other professionals who work across the civil service and would like to thank you all for your hard work.
This strategy recognises that the landscape in which we operate is changing. From the increasing role of innovative technology such as artificial intelligence, to the growing demand for transparency and public trust, the role of government analysis and our capability is evolving rapidly. This strategy provides a framework for building capability, improving analytical standards, enhancing collaboration, and ensuring that analysis is central to the decision–making process. It supports analysts and policymakers alike to work more closely, more creatively and with greater confidence in the impact of their work.
As a community, we are ambitious for what government analysis can achieve by embedding the strategy across departments. I invite all those who use, produce or rely on analysis in government to engage with the strategy, champion its goals, and help shape the future of analysis in the UK Civil Service.
Emma Rourke
Acting Head of the Government Analysis Function
2. Who we are
The Government Analysis Function is a diverse community made up of thousands of analysts across government departments and agencies, who provide the evidence and insights that matter for decision-makers and UK citizens.
We bring together a broad range of expertise and talent, encompassing all people or teams that produce analysis, evidence, and research, including members of the seven analytical professions, and analysts who aren’t affiliated to a profession. The process required for fit-for-purpose analysis is common to us all, and we are united by our application of analytical approaches to bring insights, and to form the foundation for evidence-based decision-making across government.
Each profession adds its own analytical value through specific skills and techniques, and by working together and sharing information across the function, we provide more than the sum of our parts.
Find out more about the members of the Analysis Function and what Functions deliver.
Why we are here
As analysts, we provide innovative and insightful analysis to drive decision-making and support government and society in understanding the most important topics and challenges of the day. We do so much more than just providing the data and evidence; we work in close partnership with policy and operational colleagues, alongside other functions, including Digital and Data and Finance, to make sure that analysis is at the very heart of what government does across the civil service. We ensure that our analysis provides value for citizens, not only in terms of shaping better outcomes but in allowing citizens to reach informed decisions.
What we have achieved
Over the past eight years, the strategic support provided by the analytical leadership community has been invaluable to achieving the stronger and more cohesive analytical community we are proud to be part of. This has helped ensure that the Analysis Function across government has matured significantly in the past three years, with evidence of good quality analysis which better supports decision making found across government and beyond. Find out more about examples of analytical best practice.
The Analysis Function Central Team has supported analysts throughout government to provide good quality analysis by sharing good practice and guidance, and setting the standards for what excellence in government analysis looks like. The team has provided a suite of learning and development resources that is regularly updated, and established and strengthened a strong community and culture of collaboration through annual events such as Analysis in Government (AiG) Month and the AiG Awards. Further detail on what has been achieved is included within our previous annual reports.
This new strategy for 2025-28 builds on our previous strategy and shows how every government analyst has a role to play. The strategy will help ensure that government analysts, analytical leaders, and the Analysis Function Central Team continue to work effectively across the community to achieve a positive impact. It also highlights our priorities for change across the community.
Together, we will drive strategic direction for analysis across government, strengthening and focusing our ambition to transform analysis, and supporting one another with a clear direction of ‘what good analysis looks like’.
Our vision
The analytical community will provide better outcomes for the public by providing the best and most efficient analysis to inform decision making.
Our objectives
As the analysis community has developed, we have established clear and actionable objectives that provide the overarching framework of what good analysis looks like, and which brings together all analysts working in government to achieve our vision. These objectives will ensure that what analysts do continues to be aligned with government priorities, supports innovation, and enhances efficiency and productivity. These objectives are interlinked and need to be taken forward in unison.
Our commitment to these objectives ensures that we will continue to deliver with impact.
- Providing timely and credible insights to shape and form decision making
- Working closely with our customers, to ensure we are having a positive impact and are supporting decision making, whilst remaining impartial and being open to challenge
- Having the skills to tell a clear story on what the data is telling us, with strengths and weaknesses communicated effectively
- Focusing on what works and actionable insight
- Anticipating and reacting to new priorities, including missions
To achieve this, it is essential that we are ensuring quality analysis, this will be supported by ethical and other relevant guidance.
- Having access to current and relevant tools
- Understanding how to use novel techniques and capabilities ethically, including AI and automation
- Focusing on continually improving our processes so we are more efficient and insightful, with a focus on value added and through identifying and removing duplication and addressing gaps.
- Working across departments and professions, supported by thriving networks and effective data sharing
- Having an engaged and effective governance and leadership community
- Being transparent and consistent across government
- Being curious about what others are doing, including those outside of government, and reaching out to each other.
- Having clear pathways for meaningful and rewarding careers across professions that attract and develop talent
- Understanding the skills we need to be successful now, and in the future, with a clear learning offer to support this
- Ensuring our environment is inclusive and embraces diversity
Further detail on how we can accomplish these objectives can be found in the Analysis Function Standard and other analytical guidance.
3. The future of analysis at the heart of government: The case for change
Analysis in government has never been as important as it is today. Analysis must be at the heart of the Government’s Missions (which is outlined in the Plan for Change), Civil Service Reform, and other wider ever-evolving and increasingly complex policy decisions, service delivery and strategic priorities which are increasingly being globally driven. We must be agile, efficient, and adopt new technology to build a professional, confident and skilled workforce that will provide analysis and decision making for the future and which ultimately supports the public.
We must be bold and ambitious to achieve the government’s strategic priorities, support effective policy and delivery, and provide constructive challenge where needed. This is ever more important given the need to put public finances on a sustainable path. We also need to be prepared to respond to emerging external challenges, such as the rise of ‘alternative facts’, whilst making the most of opportunities as they arise.
As the community matures, our strategic focus must keep pace to ensure that analysis in government continues to thrive and to build on what we have already achieved. For our analytical leaders, this means ensuring that analysis is firmly at the heart of government priorities now, whilst being prepared to meet the challenges of the future. This will require collaborating across professional and organisational boundaries to address common challenges and reduce duplication, as well as sustaining an analytical environment where analysts are empowered to innovate whilst having access to the tools and support needed to maintain analytical standards.
Our priorities for transforming analysis across government
Our objectives give analysts a clear steer on what we are already achieving and what analysis looks like day to day. These objectives put analysts on a firm foundation, but we recognise that there is more to do to transform the landscape of government analysis. The cross-government analytical leadership community has identified four priority areas of focus for this strategy.
These priority areas focus on enhancing analytical capabilities, supporting innovation, and ensuring inclusivity in our processes. By leveraging advanced technologies and methodologies, we aim to provide policymakers with good quality, actionable insights that will improve public services, promote sustainable development, and so ensure the well-being of all citizens. Our commitment to these priority areas will enable us to achieve measurable outcomes, driving efficiency and supporting a culture of continuous improvement across government. This will help us achieve change over the course of this strategy and beyond.
Given the ever-changing wider landscape and the need to put public finances on a sustainable path, it is essential that analysis leadership ensures that the community successfully shapes, informs and achieves government’s aims in both the short and longer term, be they strategic objectives, policies, missions and public sector reform. Some of the key challenges facing government, include: the adoption of digital tools, difficulties attracting and retaining high-demand specialist skills, and the increasing complexity in how the Civil Service operates, which we are all instrumental in.
The analysis leadership community will support this priority by ensuring that analytical resource is focused on the highest priorities within departments. We will work through established mechanisms such as the Senior Analytical Leadership Team, Departmental Directors of Analysis (DDANs), and the Analysis Function Board (AFB) to ensure we are focusing on these priority areas, that the right structures are in place to support delivery and that we are always promoting the role of analysis.
We will continue to use our relationships across government to bring together data from across government to shape the missions and other cross-cutting priorities. We will consider how we can be more agile and productive, meeting the needs of citizens and supporting growth.
We will increasingly move beyond basic analysis to achieve greater insight, with an increased focus on prevention and evaluation.
We will work closely with Policy and Operational Delivery Profession colleagues, and beyond, to ensure our analysis is delivering their requirements and is having impact, and to understand what more we need to do to ensure analysis is integrated into decision making from the start.
Analysts have a role in understanding and helping to articulate the questions that need to be addressed and communicating the results of the analysis in a compelling way. Underlying all of this is ensuring that our analysis is fit for purpose.
Given the increasingly complex decision making we need to support and the need to deliver efficiencies, it is essential that we become ever more innovative and skilled, and that we embrace new technologies and develop the use of AI in analysis (where it is appropriate) to free up analysts’ time to focus on adding value. To succeed, human and artificial ingenuity must work hand in hand and AI should not be viewed as a threat. Prioritising this work is particularly important, given the pace with which these tools and techniques are developing and changing.
The analysis leadership community will support this priority by: ensuring our analysts are aware of the different technologies available to them and providing guidance and support for their effective and ethical usage, ensuring that these tools can be used appropriately throughout the community. We will provide the right leadership within our organisations to drive forward change, ensuring staff are prioritising the right actions. We will address any cultural and ethical barriers to the use of new technology, whilst ensuring that we retain quality and transparency in our analysis.
We will use support from Government Digital Service and the actions included in their Digital Roadmap to enable this change, as well as learning from those outside of government. These actions will ensure we are better able to deliver the government strategic objectives and missions.
Whilst there have been considerable improvements in data sharing and collaboration across government, there are remaining challenges. Given the increasingly complex decision making which needs to be delivered across organisations, it is even more important that we work to address these challenges. Doing so will help ensure the community successfully achieves efficiencies across government, working strategically and collaboratively to achieve its priorities. We will be increasingly innovative around how we acquire and link data and are using our analytical capabilities to ensure we are using data, in the right way, to answer the questions that need solving.
The analysis leadership community will support this priority by addressing cultural and legislative barriers to sharing data and other issues around interoperability. We will ensure there is a better understanding of who holds what data. This will be supported by making more effective use of data sharing platforms. We will also work across siloes, continuing to build relationships by working in partnership and collaborating across the public sector and beyond. We will continue to develop professional collaboration with other government professions and functions, including the Policy Profession, ODP, Finance Function, Government Digital and Data, Government Science and Engineering Profession, and beyond, enabling teams to work together more easily and effectively.
Given these challenges across government, it is ever more important to ensure our people are central in everything we do, that they are supported in meeting these challenges and that we are making the most efficient use of our resources.
The analysis leadership community will support this priority by engaging and developing our analysts to ensure they have the right skills and capabilities needed to provide cutting edge analysis (and deliver the other priorities highlighted in the strategy) and feel part of a strong analytical community and have fulfilling careers. We will work across the analysis professions to ensure we are continuing to make the most of our resources, building on existing networks and engagement mechanisms and supporting cross government initiatives such as Places for Growth.
4. Working together to implement this strategy and provide analysis across government
Figure 1: Governance structure of the Analysis Function
The organisation chart shows the Civil Service Boards and Analysis Function Board at the top. Emma Rourke is acting Head of Government Analysis Function and National Statistician. Underneath are the Departmental Directors of Analysis (DDANs) Board and Professions Boards. Underneath this are the DDANs and Heads of Profession (HoPs). All these groups and individuals serve the needs of the Analysis Function population, including Departmental cross-government analyst working groups and forums, Profession working groups and forums and all analysts, aspiring analysts and users of analysis.
Working together to implement this strategy and provide analysis across government is a collaborative effort that involves our analytical leadership, including the Analysis Function Board (AFB), Analysis Function People Board (AFPB), and DDANs Board, who have been instrumental in developing the content of this strategy.
This senior analysis team will oversee the implementation of the new strategy across government, championing conditions for departmental success, driving cross-government programmes and priorities, ensuring analysts have the support they need to provide good quality analysis and to achieve our objectives and priorities.
Analytical leaders and the Analysis Function Central Team will actively collaborate with our main stakeholders, including other government functions and professions, and all members of the analysis community, to provide transformative analysis across government. We will also work with other analytical groups such as the Senior Analytical Leadership Team, to deliver on specific analysis priorities. By encouraging strong partnerships and close working relationships, we will ensure that our strategies are aligned with each other and with broader governmental goals and priorities.
Analysts within government and the public sector already know what is required from them to deliver good quality analysis. The Analysis Function Central Team will support analysts in this work by providing oversight of the work going on across the community, linking analysts across the community to reduce duplication and support innovation, and facilitating opportunities for collaboration. The team will also continue to provide departments and organisations with an improved understanding of the Analysis Function’s role, objectives, products and clear points of contact. We will work closely with other teams in the wider analytical community who provide expert advice and support on specific topics relevant to government analysts.
Most importantly, every member of the community has a major role to play in continuing to provide and champion quality analysis as well as understanding what is needed to further embed and elevate our analysis across government.
Support in achieving our objectives
To help achieve these objectives, there is support available from many sources across the community. The Analytical Professions provide a wide range of guidance and learning opportunities, on top of the support provided within departments. There are also specialist teams who provide support. You can find out more about these teams and other areas of specialist support on our Support page.
The Analysis Function Central Team will continue to support our vision and objectives through:
- Developing and sharing standards, guidance and tools, through the Analysis Function website and other information sharing mechanisms
- Overseeing and supporting analytical leadership
- Providing opportunities for collaboration, connecting members of the community and shining a light on best practice, through Analysis in Government (AiG) Month, AiG Awards, and other events
- Providing capability products for members, including a career framework and a learning and skills offer
- Providing additional targeted problem-solving support and opportunities across the community
How we will measure success
To measure our progress and impact against our strategic objectives and priorities, we will implement a comprehensive approach to monitoring and evaluation. This will track the effectiveness of our analytical initiatives and interventions, with a particular focus on the support provided to analysts. We will regularly gather feedback from departments and organisations to identify areas for improvement and celebrate successes. By transparently reporting our approach and findings through our annual reports, released each summer, we will demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement and accountability, ensuring that our efforts create meaningful and measurable outcomes for the public good. These measures will provide assurance to our senior analysis team that the strategy has been achieved effectively.
5. Next steps
The publication of this new strategy marks the first step towards the future of analysis in government. This strategy marks the beginning of a discussion, and a journey towards an even stronger, more skilled, collaborative and impactful analysis community, with much more to accomplish.
We will support awareness of this new strategy and encourage engagement through our new ‘Proud to be a government analyst’ communications campaign, which will feature case studies, personal testimonies, and resources to help you be a part of our exciting future.
In the coming months, we will continue to develop and outline our collective priorities and how they will support the government’s missions and wider public sector reform. We will always work transparently, seeking input and collaboration from our colleagues across government and the wider public sector.
6. How to get involved and find out more
We will only succeed with your collaboration and input, so we want to hear from you and continue the conversation so that we can shape the future of the Analysis Function together. We have a wide range of communication channels and resources where you can hear more about the Analysis Function and about analysis across government – so do get involved. More information on how you can get involved and sources of support can be found on our boosting your success page.