Central Policy Review Staff

rdf:langString Central Policy Review Staff

rdf:langString The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS), nicknamed the "Think-Tank", was an independent unit within the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom tasked with developing long term strategy and co-ordinating policy across government departments. It was established by Edward Heath in February 1971 but was later disbanded by Margaret Thatcher following the 1983 general election. The CPRS was created in response to The Reorganisation of Central Government white paper published in October 1970. It had four directors over its 12-year lifetime; Lord Rothschild (1971–1974), Sir Kenneth Berrill (1974–1980), Sir Robin Ibbs (1980–1982) and John Sparrow (1982–1983). Three of the Directors worked in the commercial sector; Rothschild was head of research at Shell, Ibbs was a director of Imperial Chemical Industries and Sparrow was a banker at Morgan Grenfell. Berrill had spent twenty years as an academic economist at Cambridge University before working for the Treasury. The unit was always small, intentionally, never being more than 20 in number plus support staff. The average secondment was two years although a small number stayed longer. Its composition was a mix of academic, Whitehall civil servants and business (particularly the oil business, all from Shell or BP) Three of the four Prime Ministers served by the CPRS felt it did a worthwhile job. Edward Heath believed the CPRS was an important part of his government. "Their work was invariably thoroughly researched and well presented. I regard the CPRS as one of the best innovations of my years at No. 10. As a group which advised ministers collectively, it helped to maintain the cohesion of the government." Harold Wilson had a positive view of the CPRS and he commented in his book The Governance of Britain "It was set up by our predecessors but we have found it very valuable and have continued it." Equally James Callaghan thought well of the unit saying in his autobiography; "To my regret, and I believe to her loss, the unit was disbanded by Mrs Thatcher." Margaret Thatcher had a rather different view of the CPRS by 1983. "The CPRS had originally been set up by Ted Heath as a source of long-term policy advice for the Government at a time when there were fewer private think-tanks, fewer special advisers in government and a widespread belief that the great questions of the day could be resolved by specialized technical analysis. But a government with a firm philosophical direction was inevitably a less comfortable environment for a body with a technocratic outlook." Upon its abolition, some of the functions of the CPRS were transferred to the Downing Street policy unit.