National Productivity Week 27th November 2023 | Visit Website

A diverse community of
leading experts, policymakers
and practitioners

The Institute’s key research themes
are led by ten academic partners
spread across the UK.

We’re a UK-wide research
organisation exploring what
productivity means for business

Businesses are crucial to solving
the UK’s productivity problems.

Productivity Commission: sizing the problem

The first evidence session of the Productivity Commission, hosted by our partner NIESR, has explored the topic of “sizing the productivity problem: international, national, regional and sectoral aspects”.

On 23 November, in a live streamed evidence session, the 18 commissioners questioned four witnesses – Maria Belen Zinni from OECD, Louise Hellem from the CBI, Josh Martin from ONS and Paul Swinney from Centre for Cities- to gain an understanding of the scope of the issue. Twenty-one written submissions were also received and can be viewed on the NIESR website.

You can watch the evidence session here:

A report will be produced drawing on all these insights in 2022.

The next evidence sessions will be held:

  • Thursday 17 February 2022, 14:00 to 16:30 – international best practice.
  • Tuesday 17 May 2022, 14:00 to 16:30 – regional disparities
  • Tuesday 12 July 2022, 14:00 to 16:30 – labour market e.g. the skills gap and training

The objectives of The Productivity Commission are to:

  • help understand and communicate the policy implications of new academic research related to UK productivity
  • collect evidence from key stakeholders and provide summaries of research and evidence with an emphasis on regions and the devolved nations
  • examine the implication of planned policies, respond to policy initiatives in Whitehall, elsewhere and overseas, provide policy advice and develop policy proposals.

The Commission will work closely with policymakers across Westminster and Whitehall while maintaining its independence at all times.