No 10 Policy Unit

Number 10 Policy Unit

Royal Arms as used by Her Majesty's Government
Policy Unit overview
Formed	1974
Policy Unit executive	James Marshall, Director
Parent department	Prime Minister's Office
Website	10 Downing Street

The Number 10 Policy Unit is a body of policymakers in 10 Downing Street in the British government. Originally set up to support Harold Wilson in 1974, it has gone through a series of guises to suit the needs of successive Prime Ministers, staffed variously by political advisers, civil servants or a combination of both.

The Coalition Government of May 2010 quickly disbanded two major parts of central infrastructure, the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit (PMDU) and Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (PMSU), as part of the Prime Minister's agenda to reduce the number of special advisers and end micromanagement of Whitehall. In their place, a strengthened Policy and Implementation Unit was launched in early 2011, staffed wholly by civil servants and reporting jointly to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister under joint heads Paul Kirby (Policy) and Kris Murrin (Implementation).

Members of the Policy Unit in 2010 were Gavin Lockhart-Mirams (Home Affairs), Sean Worth (Health and Adult Social Care), Chris Brown (Education), Richard Freer (Defence), Tim Luke (Business and Enterprise), Michael Lynas (Big Society) and Ben Moxham (Energy and Environment). The Unit is supported by the Research and Analytics Unit.

The current Downing Street Director of Policy is James Marshall, who was appointed by Theresa May on 27 June 2017.