Evidence-neglect: a major barrier to UK governments' health and climate ambitions

Recent UK governments have set some audacious ambitions to improve the nation’s health and tackle climate change. These include halving childhood obesity and eradicating smoking by 2030 and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. None of these ambitions is on course to be met.Chief amongst the possible reasons is the neglect of evidence in the policies implemented to achieve these ambitions. Three sets of factors likely contribute to this neglect: an incentive structure for politicians that favours setting ambitious policy goals while disfavouring the effective policies needed to achieve them; ideologies and interests that conflict with effective policies; and, a failed “safety net” of policy evaluation.There are no simple fixes. Two changes – engaging citizens more in policy-making and requiring published evaluations at all three stages of policy-making – have the potential to shift existing systems to accord evidence the more central role in policy-making needed for policy success.