Policy Briefing Structure Guide
Your briefing answers the question: “Does UK biomass power help reach net zero, and should we keep paying for it?” It should be about 2 pages and aimed at a busy policy-maker: someone who needs to make a decision and has 10 minutes to read.
Structure
1. Summary
3–4 sentences.
The most important part. If your reader only reads the summary, they should still know:
- What the question is
- What your answer is (with appropriate caveats)
- Why it matters
Write the summary last, after you’ve done the analysis. (Put it first in the document: policy readers start at the top and may not read to the bottom.)
2. Evidence
1–2 paragraphs and 2–3 figures.
Present the key data that supports your answer. Every figure should have a clear “so what”: the reader should see what to take from it without reading the surrounding text.
Good figures for this briefing might include:
- UK electricity generation by fuel over time (the big picture)
- CO₂ emission factors under different scenarios (the core comparison)
- Bioenergy as a percentage of total (context for scale)
- Import origins or transport distances (supply chain angle)
Figure guidelines:
- Label axes with units
- Write captions that tell the story (“Figure 1 shows that biomass grew tenfold…”), not just describe the axes (“Figure 1 shows generation vs year”)
- Include a data source in the caption
- Include only figures that you discuss in the text
3. Caveats and uncertainty
About 1 paragraph.
Acknowledge what your analysis does not capture. Honesty about limitations indicates rigour and balance. Over-confidence erodes a perception of trustworthiness.
Consider mentioning:
- Which emission factor scenario(s) you used and why
- What the range of estimates looks like under different assumptions
- What data you didn’t have (e.g. plant-level generation, detailed lifecycle analysis)
- Whether your conclusions depend on timescale (20-year vs 100-year payback)
4. Conclusion or recommendation
2–3 sentences or terse bullet points
What should the reader conclude? If this were going to a minister, what would you want them to do?
You don’t have to recommend a specific policy. You can recommend further investigation, a change in accounting rules, or simply caution in interpreting the current figures. But if your conclusion doesn’t answer the question “what now?”, your reader will wonder why they bothered to read your report.
Checklist before you push
Format
Write your briefing in markdown (a filename ending .md).
Embed images in your report with , and accompany each with a captions.
If you can’t get figures to embed, make sure that the figures (with sensible filenames) are present in the repository, where a reader will find them.