Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Zbigniew and I work in the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In November I was seconded to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), in the Economics, Research and Evidence (ERE) Team for one month.
My stay at the IPO was a result of Polish-British Secondment Programme for Regulatory Impact Assessment Teams. The main goal of the Programme is to familiarise Polish civil servants with the UK government’s approach to Impact Assessments.
During my stay at the IPO I got involved in several projects looking at IP-backed finance and exceptions to copyright. Thanks to the support of the ERE team, I was able to gain an insight, within a month, of the most important features of IPO’s approach to pursuing evidence-based policy, in particular at the stage of preparing IAs.
An important part of my secondment was a three day visit to the Secretariat of Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), an independent body responsible for scrutinising IAs in the UK. At RPC I participated in meetings and worked on case studies which gave me a better insight into the role of RPC in the better regulation agenda.
My secondment was also a great opportunity to learn more about the UK Civil Service and its organisational culture. At the beginning I found it difficult to work in open plan rooms, however after few days I got used to it and today I must concede that working in such an environment has many advantages. I can also say that I was really impressed at how open your administration is to stakeholders. It is one of many things Poland can learn from you!
Many thanks to my colleagues both in London and Newport IPO offices who were very supportive and always eager to answer my questions (even if the questions did not always make sense). I am truly convinced that the experience I have gathered here will be valuable in my career in the Polish Civil Service. I look forward to sharing my experience with colleagues at home.
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