Published today: tCI’s reply to Rewiring the State, including a briefing on the six key components the autumn White Paper needs to address and nine questions for the government.
tCI has today published ‘From Consultation by Default to Participation by Design’ as its response to the Cabinet Office’s ‘Rewiring the State’ programme. Alongside it, two supporting briefings are released: one outlining the six components the autumn White Paper needs to address, and another presenting nine questions the government should answer before removing any statutory consultation duties. The paper is authored by Andy Wright, Barry Creasy, Dr Zoe Cookson, and Simon Angelides.
It asks a single question: what must be established before removing existing consultation safeguards?
What government has said
On 31 July 2026, the Cabinet Office released “Rewiring the State,” a programme that shifts authority from Whitehall to mayors and strategic authorities across England. Regarding central government, the civil service, and arm’s length bodies, it outlines three commitments on public engagement: to replace traditional consultation with modern forms of public participation, to evaluate whether statutory duties to consult can be revoked where performative, and to do so with the belief that local leaders are better positioned to connect public opinion and civil society with policymaking.
We agreed to replace the current model of consultation by default with new and modern forms of public participation. This includes considering where performative statutory duties to consult can be revoked and how we can more actively bring the public into the policy-making process instead. This recognises that local leaders are better equipped to link public opinion and civil society to policy making.
Rewiring the State, Cabinet Office, 31 July 2026
Where we agree
Consultation that cannot influence the outcome should be discontinued. This is a genuine problem, and the government is correct to recognize it. Conducting consultations just to fulfill a duty, especially when the decision is essentially predetermined, benefits no one. According to government data, only 20% of UK respondents feel that the political system allows people like them to have a voice.
There is a real opportunity at the local and regional levels. A poll by Omnosis for IPPR in April 2026 found that distrust is at 22% for mayors and combined authorities, and 28% for local councils. In contrast, trust in the UK Parliament stands at 45%, and overall trust in politicians is at 47%. Local and regional bodies generally enjoy a more favorable position than national institutions.
What we propose
Shift the default approach from consultation to participation by design, while retaining consultation as part of a blended system, especially in contexts demanding transparency, fairness, rights, stakeholder input, or public oversight. Participation should improve upon poor consultation practices without replacing the democratic and legal functions that consultation serves. The paper further suggests using a participation design statement that identifies the decision-maker, outlines unresolved issues, and specifies the response timeline.
Consultation, participation, and the abolition of statutory duties are distinct proposals. Each has its own legal, democratic, and practical implications, and the reform should address each one separately.
Why sequence matters
Revoking a duty shifts the locus of legal responsibility. While the direct statutory pathway is removed, the public sector equality duty and other legal responsibilities still stand. However, the explicit statutory process for engaging stakeholders and demonstrating that the organisation has addressed their views and fulfilled its duties is lost. This leads to increased uncertainty about how these obligations are to be implemented in practice.
Capability operates similarly. The organisations highlighted in the Cabinet statement as better suited to facilitate participation are losing their dedicated staff. Engagement teams are being merged into communications departments, specialised roles are disappearing due to reorganisations, and the independent local voice in health is being centralised. Practitioners acknowledge the importance of meaningful involvement but say they lack the resources to achieve it.
Funding is also an issue. Consultation remains relatively inexpensive and can be handled by less specialised personnel. However, implementing participation at the level outlined in the government's own toolkit incurs higher costs. A less costly statutory activity is being replaced by a more expensive discretionary one, but there is no clear plan yet to fund this transition.
Six components the White Paper must settle
Section 9 of the paper outlines six issues that the autumn White Paper must address for participation by design to succeed. Five of these issues are already covered within the Cabinet statement of 31 July 2026, making this more of a drafting opportunity than the initiation of a new programme.
| Component | What it has to settle | Vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| A trigger | Which decisions require participation, who decides, and what scrutiny applies when an organisation decides not to involve people | None yet. The one of the six the White Paper must create |
| A standard | Government has already published one. The task is to give it force | The Government Communication Service and OECD toolkit, 9 April 2026 |
| An obligation to reply | What a decision maker must say about the outcomes of participation, to whom, and by when | Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, section 32A(9), which requires Scottish Ministers to respond within six months |
| Capability | Participation capability named in the blueprint, the delivery strategy and the leadership offer | The capability blueprint, delivery strategy, leadership offer and the National School for Government |
| Assurance | Whether participation quality falls to an external check, rather than to the body making the decision | The strengthened Local Audit Office |
| Resourcing | Funding, and a measure of whether people were involved and told what difference it made | The outcomes framework, now being streamlined |
The trigger is the gap. The remaining five issues can be addressed within the scope of work the government has already committed to, and the decision on assurances becomes more difficult once the new framework is implemented.
Nine questions for government
The second briefing poses nine questions to the government, divided into three groups. The first set of three questions addresses scope and definitions: how far the commitment extends beyond departments and arm's length bodies; what modern public participation entails in practice for organisations responsible for designing, funding, and comparing their approaches; and which criteria the government uses to determine a performative duty.
The following four questions focus on coherence and consequences, including how to establish and demonstrate strong local support for a mayoral model, what statements decision-makers need to make regarding outcomes, and the legal implications if bodies cease consulting while the public sector equality duty, common law duty, and Aarhus obligations remain in effect. The final two questions explore whether participation capability will be officially included in the strategic authority blueprint and the National School for Government's work, and whether the Local Audit Office will oversee participation quality in a way that differentiates digital reach from actual influence.
What we ask
Determine funding for the replacement and how it will be secured before deciding which duties can be safely revoked. Section 3 outlines four conditions under which tCI would support the revocation of a duty.
The Six Components and Nine Questions briefings are below, each one page. The full paper is available on request. Both briefings are free to share and quote with attribution.
tCI will follow government’s response, the autumn White Paper and what the changes mean for consultation and public participation across the public sector.
tCI (the Consultation Institute), hello@consultationinstitute.org, 020 3422 9970.