Public Audit Forum performance indicators
In 2007, the five UK audit agencies (the Audit Commission, Audit
Scotland, the National Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Audit
Office and the Wales Audit Office) jointly launched a set of
indicators for each of five corporate service activities - estates
management, finance, human resources, ICT, and procurement. Two
further services were subsequently added - communications and
legal. The latest (June 2011) version of the indicators and
definitions which were available on the Public Audit Forum website
are below.
The indicators are widely acknowledged as a reliable source of
measurement. Their success may be seen in their widespread adoption
on a voluntary basis by public bodies across the UK. Given the
maturity of corporate service benchmarking in many sectors, the
audit agencies will now step back from their initial role of
developing and maintaining indicator sets, and will not be
providing further updates beyond June 2011. They will, however,
continue to encourage bodies to benchmark their corporate services
against these, or equivalent, indicators.
As well as benchmarking activity led by public bodies
themselves, benchmarking and data collection services have been
provided by third party providers such as CIPFA and SOCITM. The
audit agencies have not collected data and will not play the
on-going benchmarking role themselves. However, each of the five UK
audit agencies will work with their respective sectors to promote
benchmarking as a means of securing good value for money in
corporate service provision.