Public Policy

Public Policy instructions are necessarily bespoke and collaborative. Our first step is usually to understand your policy priorities and obligations, your business’s commercial objectives or your organisation’s mission. We then provide options for how these priorities are best met through the recognised framework of public law.

Our team is multidisciplinary. It has expertise in all aspects of constitutional and administrative law, and public-sector processes from departmental policy-making methodologies to Cabinet Office rules, implementation of policy and regulatory programmes, economic and environmental analysis, the gauging of public opinion, the drafting of legal and other documents, the preparation of advertising material, managing the official information regime and communicating with ministers, the media, industry associations and NGOs.  We also bring political and business insight to the table, which is often critical to success.

Our services include:

• Long-term strategy – to achieve your regulatory or policy objectives.
• Responding to Government proposals – making convincing formal submissions, communicating with decision-makers, getting the right evidence together and building coalitions of support.
• Creating policy proposals and recommendations – based on a deep understanding of the issues and policy architecture.
• Drafting legislation and regulation.
• Environment scanning –  understanding national and international practices and trends to inform your decisions.
• Stakeholder perception and engagement  – understanding how your stakeholders perceive you and how to engage them better.
• Implementation – implementing a policy or regulatory programme.

In addition, MC works closely with outside experts in areas such as economic and environmental analysis, qualitative and quantitative research, political intelligence, advertising and media.

It may be helping a government agency to understand and meet its own obligations to consult. It could be assisting a company, community group, industry association or NGO wanting to be heard. It might be an issue that you worry central or local government policy-makers haven’t thought about. It might be responding to advocacy activities initiated by others that are adverse to your interests.

Whatever the situation, Parliament, local government, central government and public agencies make better policy by talking with those who will be affected.  MC’s Public Policy team is ready to help get the conversation underway, and follow it wherever it leads.

Our team works with government agencies to establish when legal and political expectations demand public engagement.  We help to decide when it is time to respond or take steps to initiate private and public discussion.  This can involve everything from mass-participation consultation exercises, to official meetings with Ministers, to formal Select Committee hearings and Commissions of Inquiry, to one-on-one discussions between policy-makers and affected interests.