How to write a briefing note

A briefing note puts one issue in front of a decision-maker in a form they can take in within a few minutes and act on. In public affairs, it is what ministers and MPs, and the people who work for them, read before they meet you, and the record of what you asked for once you have left. You can use the model note below as a template.

What is a briefing note?

• A briefing note is a concise summary of one issue, usually one or two pages of bullet points.
• It often includes a recommended action.
• It is written to inform decision-makers quickly: ministers, MPs and peers, civil servants, board members and executives.
• It is often sent ahead of a meeting, so the decision-maker arrives prepared.

For example, if a bank’s chief executive were meeting the Chancellor of the Exchequer about a new government infrastructure investment programme, the bank would send a briefing note before the meeting, and possibly again after it, setting out its position on the programme. It would usually include a recommendation, supported by facts, on where some of the investment should go.

A briefing note is easy to confuse with the documents around it:

Who reads it, and what they do with it

Write for the person who reads it first. In a minister’s office, that is usually not the minister but the private office: the civil servants who manage the minister’s diary and papers. They send your note to the policy officials who write the minister’s own brief for the meeting, and those officials decide what the minister needs to know and how to put it. A special adviser may read it too, for the politics. In an MP’s office, the first reader is usually a researcher or caseworker.

Three things follow from that:

• It may be passed on. Officials may copy parts of it into the minister’s brief. Write each section so it still makes sense on its own.
• Your facts will be checked. Officials will test your figures against their own.
• It stays on file. The private office keeps it, and it can be released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, or for the Scottish Government the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Departments also publish their ministers’ meetings with outside organisations every quarter. Write nothing you would mind seeing published, and mark anything commercially sensitive, saying why. A department will often consult you before releasing information you supplied, but the decision isn’t yours.

Three questions to answer

Before you write, make sure the note will answer each one:

• Why does the issue matter to you? Say what it means for your organisation: its people and sites, and its customers, members or shareholders.
• Why does it matter to the decision-maker? Show how acting on it serves their interests: their department’s priorities, the government’s commitments, their constituency.
• What do you want them to do? Ask for one immediate action within their power.

If you can’t answer the third question in one sentence, you aren’t ready to write the note. If your organisation has a public affairs strategy, the answers should come straight from it.

What to include, in order

Use these headings, in this order.

• Title: call it a briefing note, in the heading and in the file name.
• To: the addressee’s full name and title, for example “The Rt Hon Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero”.
• Date: the date the note is sent.
• Subject: one line on what the note is about. If it is for a meeting, name the meeting and its date.
• From: the sender’s full name and title, and the organisation.
• Executive summary: the issue, exactly how it affects you, and what you are asking the decision-maker to do, in three or four points.
• Why it matters to them: the link to their department, the government’s commitments or their constituency.
• Background: the history of the issue and the key facts that support your position. A short timeline can help.
• Other issues: anything else you want to raise in the meeting.
• Recommendation and next steps: the outcome you want, stated plainly, so the decision-maker is in no doubt about your request, and what you will do next.
• Contact: the person the office should call with questions, usually your head of public affairs, with their direct contact details.
• Attachments: anything that supports the case, listed by name.

Write the note in short points under these headings, and keep it to two pages at most. Put data, maps and technical detail in attachments, so the note can be read without them.

How to write it well

• Put the ask in the summary. Say what you want in the executive summary, in one sentence. An official who reads no further should still be able to tell the minister what you are asking for.
• Keep to one issue. One note, one issue, one ask. If you have three issues, lead with the one that matters most and list the others under “Other issues”, or write separate notes.
• Ask for something they can do. A backbench MP can’t change a regulation, but can write to the minister, table a written question, apply for a Westminster Hall debate or raise it with colleagues. A minister can act within their department’s responsibilities, or take an issue to a colleague. Much of health, education, housing and planning is devolved, so check whether Westminster or the government in Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast can act. Match the ask to the power.
• Make it local. For an MP, give figures for their constituency: people employed, sites, members, customers or investment in the seat. For a minister, connect the issue to their department and to what the government has already committed to. If you have addresses or postcodes but not constituencies, GovConnex can map them to Westminster constituencies. If you brief the opposition, other parties or select committee members as well, rewrite the ask and why it matters for each of them.
• Use evidence they can check. Give each figure a date and a source: your own data (and how you collected it), a Hansard column, a report. Don’t round in your favour: one inflated number costs the rest their credibility.
• Name the cost and the objection. Say what your ask would cost government, who might oppose it and why, and your answer. Officials will raise these anyway; it is better that your answer is already in the note.
• Write in plain English. Short sentences, active verbs and no jargon. Spell out each acronym the first time it appears, even ones the office should know.
• Keep the tone even. No criticism of the government, the opposition or individuals, and no marketing language. A note that reads as partisan is discounted, and yours may be read by people on every side.
• Make it stand alone. Someone who never saw your email should understand it. Put your organisation’s name, the date and page numbers on every page.
• Make it easy to skim. Headings, short points, white space, figures as numerals, and a simple table if it saves words. Send a PDF or Word document, not a slide deck.

Then test it. Give it to a colleague who doesn’t know the issue, take it back after two minutes, and ask what you want and why. If they can’t tell you, rewrite the executive summary.

A model briefing note

This note is for a first meeting with a Secretary of State. Kestrel Infrastructure, its people, its project and its figures are fictional; the Secretary of State, her title and the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan are real. To use it as a template, keep the headings and replace everything under them.

Briefing note

To: The Rt Hon Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Date: Wednesday 4 November 2026

Subject: Grid connection costs for battery storage in the North East, for our meeting on Tuesday 10 November

From: Ruth Calder, Chief Executive, Kestrel Infrastructure

Executive summary

• Kestrel Infrastructure is ready to build a 250 MW battery at its Teesside site, with about 180 construction jobs and 25 permanent roles (project plan, August 2026, attached).
• The estimated cost of connecting it to the grid has risen from £20 million to £37 million since March 2024. At that cost, the project cannot reach a final investment decision in 2027 as planned.
• We ask that your officials review the connection costs facing battery storage projects in the North East with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator (NESO), and report to you on options to reduce them.

Why it matters to you

• Storage like this backs up wind and solar. The government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan includes 23 to 27 GW of battery capacity by 2030.
• Three other storage projects in the North East face similar increases (attached).
• The construction jobs would be on Teesside, in the Redcar constituency.

Background

• March 2024: the network operator’s first connection offer estimated £20 million.
• August 2026: a revised offer estimated £37 million, after the reinforcement works needed to connect the project were reassessed.
• December 2026: Kestrel’s board decides whether to keep funding design work.

Other issues

• Housing for the construction workforce on Teesside. We are raising this with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, and mention it for completeness.

Recommendation and next steps

• That your officials review connection costs for battery storage projects in the North East with Ofgem and NESO, and report to you on options to reduce them.
• Kestrel will send its cost data to your department within a week of our meeting, and our engineers can brief officials during the review.

Contact: Maya Reid, Head of Public Affairs, Kestrel Infrastructure, 07700 900157

Attachments: the connection offers of March 2024 and August 2026; the project plan, cost breakdown and timeline; other North East storage projects affected.

Why it works:

• The ask is in the third point, and it is within the Secretary of State’s power: it asks for work from her own officials.
• It connects the project to her department’s responsibilities and to a plan the government has published.
• The urgency comes from a date, the board’s decision in December, not from adjectives.
• Every figure has a source, and the evidence is attached and offered to the department.
• It offers something in return: the data, and a briefing for officials.
• It fits on one page.

Who should send it, and when

• Address the briefing note and meeting request to the most senior relevant person attending the meeting or responsible for the issue.
• Take their name, title and address from a current source: the GovConnex directory has each person’s full title, salutation and addresses, and exports them as a mail merge.
• Have it sent by the person in your organisation closest in seniority to the recipient.
• For example, meetings with Secretaries of State, First Ministers and permanent secretaries should almost always be led by the chief executive; a meeting with a backbench MP may be led by another executive.
• Send it five or six days before the meeting, so the private office has time to read it and pass it to the officials writing the minister’s brief. If useful, send it again straight afterwards, updated if anything changed, with a note thanking them for their time.
• Attach it to a short email of two or three lines that says the briefing note is attached and summarises the issue.
• Send it to the person who arranged the meeting. Ask whether anyone else in the office should have it, and use the office’s preferred format if it has one.
• Take printed copies to the meeting, one for each person in the room.
• Time the ask to the political calendar. HM Treasury takes representations for each Budget through an online portal that closes weeks before Budget day, so a Budget request needs to be in by then, not in the weeks before the Budget is delivered.
• Don’t ask for a decision in the pre-election period before a general election. Under Cabinet Office guidance, ministers then postpone policy decisions a new government might want to take differently, sensitive appointments and large or contentious contracts. The devolved governments have their own guidance before their elections.
• If you lobby for paying clients, you must be on the Register of Consultant Lobbyists before you communicate with a UK government minister or permanent secretary on a client’s behalf, and declare your clients every quarter. In Scotland, the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016 covers in-house staff too: paid lobbying of MSPs, Scottish ministers, Scottish Government special advisers or the Permanent Secretary, face to face or by video call, must be reported to the Scottish Parliament’s Lobbying Register, unless your organisation has fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees.

Briefing your own chief executive

The note you send is half the preparation. The other half is a one-page brief for everyone going from your side, which stays internal: who you’re meeting and what they’ve said, your history with them, the ask in the same words as the note, no more than three key messages, the hard questions with short answers, what to avoid, and who says what.

In GovConnex, Analyst drafts a meeting brief when you ask: what the person has said about the issues you follow, their roles and committees, and your team’s history with them, each point linked to its source.

Before you send it

• The ask is in the executive summary, in one sentence, and it is something this person can do.
• The note fits on two pages and makes sense without its attachments.
• Every name, title and department is current. Check them on GOV.UK and the UK Parliament website on the day you send it, since ministers change in reshuffles.
• Every figure has a date and a source.
• Each acronym is spelled out the first time it appears.
• A colleague who doesn’t know the issue can tell you the ask after one read.
• Nothing in it would embarrass you if it were published.
• The contact named on the note is available in the week it arrives.

Common questions

How long should a briefing note be? One page if you can, two at most, with supporting detail in attachments.

Should a briefing note be in bullet points? For the most part, yes: short points under clear headings, each a complete sentence. The points let the reader find what they need quickly, and complete sentences stop the ask being misread.

What is the difference between a briefing note and a briefing paper? A briefing paper, such as a House of Commons Library research briefing, is usually longer and written for a wider audience, often published to inform a debate. A briefing note is written for one decision-maker, about one issue, usually ahead of one meeting or decision.

What is a ministerial submission? In Whitehall, a submission is the note officials send their minister through the private office, setting out an issue, the options and a recommendation, usually for a decision. Officials also brief ministers before their meetings, so when you meet one, expect the department’s questions.

How do I address a minister in a briefing note? Use the form GOV.UK gives: “The Rt Hon Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero”. Members of the Privy Council, Cabinet ministers among them, are “The Rt Hon”; other MPs are simply their name followed by “MP”. A minister in the House of Lords is “The Lord …” or “The Baroness …”, or “The Rt Hon the Lord …” if they are a Privy Counsellor. Members of the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly use MSP, MS and MLA after their names. Check each person on GOV.UK or the UK Parliament website.