Politicians and civil servants seem to be attaching more weight to using research in policymaking than ever before. Over the past decade, it has become de rigueur for governments and international organizations to stress the need for ‘evidence-based’ policy. The tendency was well exemplified by the Labour administration that came to power in Britain in 1997. The new government accentuated the need for policy to be underpinned by rigorous scientific analysis (Parsons 2002). Policymaking, it was argued, should be ‘based on a comprehensive and foresighted understanding of the evidence’, ensuring approaches ‘that are forward-looking and shaped by the evidence rather than a response to short-term pressures’. The intention was to move away from policy based on ‘dogma’ to ‘sound evidence’ of ‘what works’. Evidence-based policymaking has become especially modish in the fields of health, education, labour market policy and criminal justice. As one advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair put it, ‘Governments have become ravenous for information and evidence.’ They recognize that their success now ‘depends on much more systematic use of knowledge than it did in the past’.

This rhetoric has been backed up by a variety of new initiatives. In the early 2000s, the UK government established a Centre for Management and Policy Studies within the Cabinet Office, which was tasked with ensuring that government departments make better use of research. It launched a White Paper on Modernising Government, which argued that evidence-based approaches were critical to enhancing policy and delivery.