The ‘nudge unit’: the experts that became a prime UK export

A team of former civil servants specialising in behavioural psychology now pulls in revenues of 14m a year

David Halpern pauses at the mention of a quote from one of the government's senior Brexiters - that "people in this country have had enough of experts" - and briefly gazes out of a window in the Westminster offices of the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT).

"Empirically, it doesn't appear to be true," replies the chief executive of the business that was once the Cabinet Office team nicknamed the "nudge unit". It was spun off in 2014 as a "social purpose company" and is now co-owned by its employees, the Cabinet Office and the innovation charity Nesta.