Rapid Evidence Assessments (REAs)

Recent research by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) highlights that children’s meals in the ‘out of home sector’ in Northern Ireland often lack variety and healthy options. To assist FSA’s efforts in promoting a healthier food environment for children, Harlow Consulting has been commissioned to conduct a literature review of initiatives aimed at improving the nutritional quality of children’s restaurant meals and encouraging positive consumer behaviour.

This REA focused on understanding existing approaches to climate change risk assessment, with the objective of identifying an approach that could be adopted by Historic England. The project involved extensive research into what an effective climate change risk assessment looks like. A robust, staged search strategy was devised to compile a database of 500 sources for abstract review. Enabling us to identify 116 relevant sources that informed the final literature review.

To support the new regulatory functions of the OPSS, Harlow Consulting researched the evolution and impact of the current regulatory landscape for construction products. As part of this project, we completed an REA of regulatory documents and academic literature alongside in-depth interviews with European stakeholders, product manufacturers, testing laboratories and users of construction products. Our report was subject to expert peer review and will be used to inform future regulation policy, including in the event of a divergence between the European and UK regulatory regimes.