Policy & government impact

Professor Thom Brooks outside 10 Downing Street, June 2025

Professor Thom Brooks works at the intersection of research, policy and public engagement, providing evidence-based insight for policy makers, select committees and NGOs in the United Kingdom and abroad. This page brings together resources for parliamentary, civil service and policy audiences.

The current moment: settlement, citizenship and integration (HL Paper 13)

On 23 June 2026, the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee published Settlement, Citizenship and Integration (HL Paper 13), the most substantial parliamentary examination of settlement and citizenship policy in a generation. Professor Brooks gave oral evidence to the inquiry in January 2026, having successfully proposed the inquiry into the Life in the UK test, and also submitted supplementary written evidence.

His evidence is cited in twelve paragraphs across four chapters, and quoted directly in seven of them (paras 103, 213, 230, 232, 252, 253, 256, 265, 276, 305, 327 and 328). Three of the Committee’s recommendations reflect proposals he put to the inquiry:

  • His assessment that the Life in the UK test resembles ‘a bad pub quiz’ frames the report’s central criticism of the test (para 252), and his proposal of courses as an alternative to the test, reviving an idea from Sir Bernard Crick’s original 2004 report, is adopted in the Committee’s recommendation (paras 256, 259)
  • His account of citizenship ceremonies, contrasting American ceremonies held before thousands at sporting events with receiving his own British citizenship ‘in a back room in Gateshead’, anchors the recommendation that ceremonies be held at significant cultural and sporting venues with the wider community involved (paras 265, 268)
  • His evidence on the Migration Impacts Forum, which the Committee records left it ‘struck by Professor Brooks’ point’, anchors the recommendation that the Forum be reintroduced to assess the societal impacts of migration (paras 327–328, 334)

His evidence also contributed to further conclusions: it is the first-cited source for the finding that the UK lacks an up-to-date integration strategy, which the report recommends be published by the end of 2026 (paras 213, 218); his description of the immigration system as a ‘Frankenstein-like patchwork quilt’ supports the recommendation to simplify the immigration rules with an expanded Law Commission remit (paras 230, 232, 236); and his account of successive governments’ reactive rule-making informs the conclusion that the Home Office must take a longer-term approach (paras 305, 307).

An agenda for the response: The Government’s formal response to the Committee is now due. Professor Brooks’s published proposals speak directly to its recommendations: a British Integration Contract; a reformed Life in the UK test (the Government has committed to refreshing the test, a reform he first proposed in 2013); a UK Day bank holiday; an Integration and Social Cohesion Commission; a revived Migration Impacts Forum, now recommended by the Committee; and a Hate Crime Offender Register. Full detail: consolidated briefing (PDF).

Parliamentary & government engagement

Select committee evidence cited in final reports:

Cited in parliamentary debates:

  • House of Lords, 10 October 2013: his report on the Life in the UK test cited by members and addressed by the Minister in debate on citizenship and nationality; endorsed at launch by the Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration
  • House of Lords, 14 April 2021: his report raised directly with the Minister during the Government’s review of the test
  • House of Lords, 12 May 2022: his book The Trust Factor quoted in the Queen’s Speech debate
  • House of Commons, November 2023: findings and recommendations on the test noted in debate (see the Durham University record)

Further engagement:

  • Written evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Routes to Settlement inquiry (January 2026)
  • Written evidence on community cohesion to a House of Commons inquiry (January 2025)
  • Formally thanked in the House of Commons for advising the Home Office on the National Security Act 2023
  • The Government has committed to refreshing the Life in the UK test (Immigration White Paper, 2025; Social Cohesion Strategy, 2026), a reform he has advocated since 2013
  • Cited by the Electoral Commission on the EU referendum question; proposed wording accepted by government (2016)
  • Member, Office for National Statistics cross-Government Statistical Service Migration Expert Group (2021)
  • Invited to advise the Extremism Threats Unit, MHCLG (October 2024) and the Ministry of Justice on sentencing (September 2024)

Citizenship & integration policy

Overview: Brooks is a leading advocate for reform of the Life in the UK test, citizenship education and integration strategy, emphasising practical reforms to strengthen civic participation and fairness.

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Justice, ethics & rehabilitation

Overview: Research on sentencing, punishment and restorative justice, combining philosophical examination with legal analysis.

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United States engagement

Professor Brooks, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States born in New Haven, Connecticut, maintains an active contribution to American public and academic life: scholarship quoted by the Connecticut Supreme Court in the ruling abolishing the death penalty in his native state; member of the editorial advisory board of the Review of Politics (University of Notre Dame); author of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Hegel’s social and political philosophy; commentary for Newsweek and CNN; visiting positions at Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Yale, Penn and NYU.

Leadership & higher education policy

Overview: As Principal of Durham University’s largest college and Founding Dean of Durham Law School, Brooks has led major institutions through growth, research improvement, widening participation and civic engagement.

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Download

Consolidated policy briefing (PDF)

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