Public Design in the UK Government: A Review of the Landscape and its Future Development

This is a report published by the Cabinet Office, UK Government, as part of the Public Design Evidence Review in 2025, authored by an interdisciplinary team of academics - Lucy Kimbell, Catherine Durose, Rainer Kattel, and Liz Richardson.

The report argues there is growing evidence that public design has untapped potential to help address challenges facing governments. The report reviews and synthesises the existing evidence and activities across the UK government associated with ‘design’. It offers a list of practices generally seen as associated with design; a working definition of public design; and a framework that shows what public design adds to the policy cycle.

Using the evidence base available, the report offers illustrative examples of an important range of outcomes and impacts from using public design practices. It also outlines important questions about how to address barriers that inhibit the potential of design to be realised in government.