Policy & government impact

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 (House of Lords report, 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 nine paragraphs of the report, across three chapters, with five direct quotations (see paras 103, 212, 230, 232, 252–253, 256, 265 and 276) — and 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 description of the immigration system as a ‘Frankenstein-like patchwork quilt’ opens the report’s case for simplification of the immigration rules, reflected in its recommendation to expand the Law Commission’s remit (paras 230, 232, 236)

His evidence at Q 85 is also the first-cited source for the Committee’s finding that the UK lacks an up-to-date integration strategy — which the report recommends be published by the end of 2026 (paras 212, 218).

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 a new edition — a reform he first proposed in 2013); a UK Day bank holiday; an Integration and Social Cohesion Commission; a revived Migration Impacts Forum; and a Hate Crime Offender Register. Full detail: consolidated briefing (PDF).

Parliamentary & government engagement

Select committee evidence cited in final reports:

  • House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Settlement, Citizenship and Integration, HL Paper 13 (2026) —cited
  • House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee (2022) — cited at paragraphs 2, 8, 11, 13, 18, 35, 40, 42, 44 → report
  • House of Lords Liaison Committee (2022) — cited at paragraphs 107–108, 111 → report
  • House of Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Participation (2018) — cited at paragraphs 461–462, 468–469, 476 → report

Further engagement:

  • Written evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on citizenship and immigration (January 2026)
  • Formally thanked in the House of Commons for advising the Home Office on the National Security Act 2023
  • 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.

Key resources:

Justice, ethics & rehabilitation

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

Key resources:

  • Punishment: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2021)
  • Evidence to Ministry of Justice consultations and the UK Sentencing Review [ADD LINK if published]
  • The ‘unified theory’ of punishment, named among the top 100 Big Ideas for the Future by Research Councils UK [verify year — the page says 2009; the RCUK publication is generally dated 2011]
  • Scholarship quoted in the majority opinion in State v. Santiago, 318 Conn. 1 (2015), in which the Connecticut Supreme Court abolished capital punishment

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.

Key resources:

Download:

Consolidated policy briefing (PDF)

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