Central Policy Review Staff

The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS), nicknamed the "Think-Tank", was an independent unit within the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom tasked with developing long term strategy and co-ordinating policy across government departments. It was established by Edward Heath in February 1971 but was later disbanded by Margaret Thatcher following the 1983 general election. The CPRS was created in response to The Reorganisation of Central Government white paper published in October 1970. It had four directors over its 12-year lifetime; Lord Rothschild (1971–1974), Sir Kenneth Berrill (1974–1980), Sir Robin Ibbs (1980–1982) and John Sparrow (1982–1983). Three of the Directors worked in the commercial sector; Rothschild was head of research at Shell, Ibbs was a director of Imperial Chemical Industries and Sparrow was a banker at Morgan Grenfell. Berrill had spent twenty years as an academic economist at Cambridge University before working for the Treasury.