Dealing with public sector comms

The mild furore over venison in the NHS shows the challenges of working with public sector procurement. At British Game Assurance (BGA) we have two significant public sector partners, the NHS and the MOD. Both are wary of PR, so while we enjoy working with them, we can’t often talk about it.

Having worked for Defra,

I do understand that those making decisions on operations can’t make decisions on PR. Government comms teams have wider briefs in mind when deciding what comments to make, which might explain why the Nhs/game meat project that BGA announced last February reappeared in the papers over the past few weeks.

“Both the NHS and Ministry of Defense are wary of PR”

However, I wonder if the immediate fire the news drew from PETA might make Government comms teams think twice about publicising game meat again any time soon. We will keep working behind the scenes to make sure the project continues unabashed, probably without the glare of publicity.

Liam Stokes is chief executive of British Game Assurance and has worked at both Defra and the GWCT