About us

The Centre for Public Scrutiny has been created to promote the value of scrutiny in modern and effective government - not only to hold executives to account but also to create a constructive dialogue between the public and its elected representatives - to improve the quality of public services.

We have established four principles which propose that effective scrutiny:

provides ‘critical friend’ challenge to executive policy-makers and decision-makers
enables the voice and concerns of the public and its communities
is carried out by ‘independent minded governors’ who lead and own the scrutiny process
drives improvement in public services

Find out more about these four principles in our Good Scrutiny Guide.

We want to enhance public understanding of what scrutiny means, why it matters and how we can get it right. We will support effective scrutiny by bringing people together, developing networks and disseminating research to share imaginative practice across the country.

The Centre aims to:

Promote the value of scrutiny and raise its profile Facilitate links between different tiers of government and share example of effective scrutiny Encourage people of ability and talent to participate in the scrutiny process create and support a community of interest to build capacity, confidence and skills Develop understanding and good practice through research

We would like to hear from you how we can work together to achieve our mission - better scrutiny for better government.