The UK government has told ministers to cut back on formal consultations, tolerate greater legal risk, and curb judicial reviews in a bid to speed up decision-making. In a letter sent on Monday, Chancellor John Healey, First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, and Attorney General Ellie Reeves said "consultation culture" had become an "industry of dither and delay", arguing that consultations often fail to reach the most relevant voices and tend to water down policy into a "lowest common denominator" outcome.

Departments have been instructed to hold formal consultations only when legally required, when skipping one would be "conspicuously unfair", or when ministers see a specific reason to seek outside input, and to re-examine rather than assume past commitments to consult still apply. The government also wants to strip thousands of consultation and reporting requirements from the statute book, with repeal now the default. Alongside this, ministers are being encouraged to press ahead with policy even where lawyers rate legal risk as high, provided there is a "tenable legal argument", with updated guidance for government lawyers due this week; plans are also afoot to extend judicial review reforms, currently limited to energy infrastructure, to transport, water and other major projects. The move follows separate, so far patchy, efforts to rein in consultancy spending, including a 2024 pledge to save £1.2 billion annually by 2026 that hasn't stopped large contracts, such as up to £200 million to Deloitte and £150 million to PA Consulting at the Home Office.