How to make the UK a world leader in public sector AI

How to make the UK a world leader in public sector AI

The UK has no shortage of AI strategies, summits and action plans. But a stack of policy papers doesn't retrain a civil servant, fix a legacy data system, or scale a pilot beyond a single department. The real challenge is execution. In this episode of Policy Fix, Nesta's podcast on the ideas and reforms that matter, host Joe Owen is joined by two people who know what it actually takes to get things done inside government: James Kuht, former member of the Prime Minister's Data Science Team at No.10 and now CEO of AI workforce company Pair, and Mallory Durran, who led the government's Incubator for AI and now heads Nesta's Applied Research and Methods team. Together they argue that the UK is at a genuine inflection point but risks squandering it by mistaking activity for progress. They explore what separates real transformation from efficiency theatre: the internal barriers of skills, culture and creaking infrastructure; the pressures of Big Tech dependency and procurement inertia; and the question of whether the public sector has the risk appetite to actually innovate. The UK does have real strategic advantages. This episode makes the case for what they are and how to build on them. But it ends with an honest question: are the reforms being discussed genuinely equal to the scale of the opportunity? You will come away with actionable insights on bridging the implementation gap, building national AI capability beyond running pilots, and understanding the concrete reforms needed to turn policy ambition into operational reality. What we cover: - Why AI success in government comes down to senior leadership clarity, not technology - The internal barriers blocking scale: skills, culture and legacy infrastructure - How to manage AI risk by investing in workforce experimentation - Whether the UK can compete with Big Tech or is inevitably dependent on it - The bold bets that could genuinely transform health and education outcomes - What departments need to switch off to make space for AI to deliver Guests: James Kuht, CEO, Pair | Former Prime Minister's Data Science Team, No.10 Downing Street Mallory Durran, Head of Applied Research and Methods, Nesta | Former Director, Government Incubator for AI Chapters: 00:00 "The magic can really start to happen" 01:14 Introduction 02:38 Where does AI sit on the hype spectrum? 05:07 How big is the prize for public services? 07:27 AI in action: planning data and the Extract tool 11:51 The biggest barriers to AI adoption in government 15:01 Why government needs tech-native leaders 17:25 Real risk vs perceived risk in the public sector 20:37 Experimentation as a risk management strategy 23:31 What breaks when you try to scale an AI pilot? 25:46 The funding problem: how government scales tech 28:06 Can government compete for AI talent? 32:11 Insource or outsource? Getting AI capability right 34:01 What would prove the government is serious about AI? 37:04 The unglamorous reforms that will actually matter 39:22 Practical advice: where to start with AI tomorrow 42:14 Outro

How to make this the last ever UK energy crisis

The UK is headed for another energy crisis. The war in Iran has choked energy markets and will be felt as another hit for inflation weary consumers and for the UK's beleagured economy. What should government do now? And how can it act to make sure that it doesn't waste the crisis? In this episode of Policy Fix, host Joe Owen sits down with Nesta CEO Ravi Gurumurthy and director of Nesta's sustainable future mission, Madeleine Gabriel to untangle the acute effects of this latest energy shock from more long running challenges in the UK's energy economy. They explore: * Why the UK is so exposed to energy shocks * How this crisis differs from the gas spike caused by the invasion by Russia of Ukraine * What the government should and shouldn't do to support consumers on rising bills * How to make electricity cheaper * What do to about North Sea Oil * How to run a massive energy saving campaign If you're interested or work in energy policy, climate change, or economics, this episode is essential listening. Nesta is a politically impartial research and innovation charity designing, testing, and scaling solutions to society's biggest problems. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction and teaser 01:11 Welcome and episode overview 02:30 How the war in Iran is affecting energy markets 03:57 Is the UK more exposed than other countries? 04:35 How this crisis compares to the 2022 Ukraine gas spike 07:00 Lessons from 2022: what should government do now? 09:42 When and how should government intervene? 13:05 Supporting households: targeted vs general subsidies 16:27 Turbocharging electrification through the crisis 22:16 Making the electricity-to-gas price ratio work 23:26 How to pay for it all 25:19 The North Sea oil debate 29:17 What households can do for themselves 32:08 The case for a national energy-saving campaign 33:43 The politics of decarbonisation 37:11 Closing thoughts: what should Keir Starmer prioritise?

How to make social media safer for children

One in five children aged 3–5 already owns a smartphone and 95% of 13–15 year-olds have a social media profile. Is the UK's Online Safety Act failing to protect them and is a blanket ban on social media the answer? In this episode of Policy Fix, host Joe Owen sits down with Tony Curzon Price, economist and policy fellow at Nesta, and Hannah Perry, Director at Demos, to untangle one of the most urgent policy debates of our time: how do we regulate social media for children without doing more harm than good? They explore: * Why the Online Safety Act has 'barely touched the sides' and what went wrong * The evidence base for social media harm, from Jonathan Haidt's correlations to natural experiments tracking Facebook's campus rollout * Why Australia's age-based ban may push kids toward riskier, less regulated spaces * The case for product regulation - treating social media like a dangerous car that should be made safer, rather than trying to ban driving * Tony's bold proposal: a BBC Club Kids social network, launched by 2028 * Hannah's vision for community-rooted digital spaces and epistemic sovereignty * What the government consultation should actually deliver, including bringing AI chatbots inside the scope of the Online Safety Act If you work in policy, edtech, child welfare, or digital regulation or if you're a parent trying to make sense of a system that feels broken this episode is essential listening. Note that this episode was recorded before the recent judgement against Meta and YouTube in the US. Nesta is a politically impartial research and innovation charity designing, testing, and scaling solutions to society's biggest problems. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Episode Chapters 00:00  What’s coming up: "A full-time job for parents": the social media treadmill 01:09  Welcome to Policy Fix. Introducing Joe, Tony Curzon Price & Hannah Perry 02:01  Setting the scene: is this a moral panic, or something genuinely different? 03:43  The stats: 1 in 5 toddlers has a phone; 95% of teens on social media 04:03  Evidence of harm. Child deaths, compulsive scrolling & displaced real-world activity 05:01  The causality debate: what Jonathan Haidt's research actually shows 06:30  The Facebook campus study — a natural experiment pointing to causality 07:33  The willingness-to-pay study: users know they're trapped and want out 08:25  How did we get here? The attention-harvesting business model explained 10:13  The algorithm arms race. Sarah Wynn-Williams and the Facebook whistleblower revelations 11:26  From Father Coughlin to Facebook: what radio history tells us about regulating media 13:23  Why the Online Safety Act has barely touched the sides 15:35  Why has this crisis bubbled back up the agenda now? 17:43  Should we ban social media for children? Tony makes the case against 19:05  The upside of social media why a blanket ban risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater 21:16  Hannah on the ban: 50% of parents would evade it, and it breaks trust with kids 23:34  Are "cuter" regulatory solutions also doomed to fail? 23:50  Tony's alternative: a public service construction of a good platform 26:44  Hannah's vision. BBC charter renewal, epistemic sovereignty & community digital spaces 29:31  What should the BBC practically do in the upcoming charter renewal? 32:26  The wider policy toolkit: no silver bullet, but an array of solutions 34:45  Tony on family-level solutions, network monitoring without surveillance 37:53  Australia's ban evaluation: is it reducing family conflict? 38:22  The BBC's new role in media literacy and cultural norm shift 39:05  What to watch for after the consultation closes 39:27  Hannah's ask: include AI chatbots in the Online Safety Act 40:08  Tony's ask: the BBC must become the platform, not feed it 41:52  One thing for Keir Starmer. Tony on cyberspace experimentation 42:49  Hannah's closing call: strengthen the Online Safety Act with safety-by-design 43:14  Sign-off

How to fix the way government works

Successive governments have promised to reform the British state. Most have left it harder to navigate than they found it. So what would genuinely fixing the way government works actually look like? In this episode of The Policy Fix, Jill Rutter (Senior Fellow, Institute for Government) and Andrew Greenway (founder of A Bit Digital and former senior civil servant) join host Joe Owen to examine why Whitehall struggles to deliver: the civil service’s misaligned incentives, the gap between policy and delivery, and why Labour’s mission-driven government ran out of steam. They also explore what the rare successes GDS, the vaccine taskforce, Brexit, Covid actually have in common, and what it would take to replicate that more broadly. They end with a quickfire question: if Keir Starmer called you tomorrow and said he wanted to move fast and break things, what’s the one thing you’d tell him to break? Frank, expert and full of practical insight, this is the state reform conversation that Whitehall needs to be having. The Policy Fix is produced by Nesta. Timecodes: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:53 Do we have a government delivery problem? 00:06:18 What happened to Labour's mission-driven government? 00:12:07 Why do politicians struggle to get things done? 00:15:52 Has governing fundamentally changed? 00:22:12 What the Government Digital Service (GDS) got right 00:27:24 The “project” model: lessons from the Olympics 00:30:23 The policy vs delivery divide in Whitehall 00:34:06 Brexit and Covid: what government can do well 00:39:41 Do we need a wholesale review of the British state? 00:43:15 Structural reform: does No. 10 need more power? 00:48:31 What would you break? The final question

How to reform the UK's tax system

The UK tax system has been described by experts as irrational, a mess and a nightmare. But what would genuinely reforming it look like - and why have successive chancellors ducked it for so long? In this first episode of The Policy Fix, Tim Leunig (chief economist, Nesta) and Helen Miller (director, Institute for Fiscal Studies) break down the biggest structural problems in Britain’s tax system: the distortions created by how we tax employment versus self-employment versus dividends; the £80bn cost of VAT exemptions and why a flapjack is legally different from a muesli bar; why stamp duty is almost universally agreed to be a bad tax - and why it still exists; and whether wealth taxes are a serious policy option or an idea that sounds better than it works. They also debate what a reforming Chancellor should actually do: go big and bold, or chip away incrementally? And they end with one policy each that they’d push through if they were Prime Minister for a day. Sharp, evidence-based and surprisingly entertaining - this is UK tax policy for people who want to understand the real arguments. The Policy Fix is produced by Nesta. Timecodes: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:40 What's wrong with the UK tax system? 00:03:55 Why have chancellors avoided reform for so long? 00:10:11 The biggest structural problem: income, NI & dividends 00:13:12 The VAT chaos: flapjacks, gingerbread men & £80bn in exemptions 00:16:00 How to actually reform: what should a Chancellor do first? 00:22:49 Stamp duty & property tax: the case for abolition 00:27:04 Wealth taxes: effective policy or zombie idea? 00:31:44 Quick wins, capital gains & green/vehicle taxes 00:35:10 Political bravery: are politicians or the system to blame? 00:39:49 Expert commissions vs. the Chancellor acting now 00:43:42 One policy to transform the UK economy