How Government Works: demystifying the structures and responsibilities in Whitehall, Westminster and beyond

Understanding how Whitehall and Westminster work can be a daunting challenge. Even those who have been interacting professionally with government for many years can find some of the practices, procedures, conventions and relationships complicated to navigate.

This first podcast in Global Government Forum’s How Government Works series provides easy-to-digest information on who does what, and how, in government.

Listen to this episode to get a simple summary of everything from constitutional frameworks to the organisational structures and interactions, and onto operational procedures, people and power. The session also looked at how to interact with these institutions and people in the most appropriate and effective ways.

This is the first in a series of podcasts from Global Government Forum setting out how government works, and was based on a webinar held on 12 July 2024. At the time of recording, Simon Case was the UK government cabinet secretary, prior to his departure in December 2024.

Register for the next webinar in GGF’s How Government Work series, providing more information on the government’s missions and what they mean in areas like procurement, taking place on 4 March: 

And find out more about how the UK government and its international peers are dealing the challenges they face at Global Government Forum’s Innovation conference on 25-26 March 2025