The NAO’s work includes looking at a huge range of government activities, and the setting up and managing of commercial arrangements are central to many of them. This became very clear when looking back at twenty years of our work auditing government’s spending and reporting on its value for money for taxpayers. Over this time, […]
The first in a series of blogs looking at the Commercial Lifecycle covers data.
“The world is now living through climate change, not watching it draw near” is the stark warning delivered by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), in its sixth assessment report (AR6). In risk speak, high-impact, low-likelihood events will become more likely with higher temperatures. With COP 26 fast approaching and extreme weather events becoming […]
Government departments are making plans for achieving substantial efficiency savings by 2024-25, but what might this mean in practice?
It’s revealing to look at the timeline of digital transformation initiatives over the last 25 years. Government’s ambition for ‘world class’ services using joined-up systems and data goes back to the mid 1990s, from where we can trace a steady stream of policies and initiatives right through to last autumn’s National Data Strategy. Most of […]
The NAO’s good practice guide for managing the commercial lifecycle The government’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic has drawn renewed, and possibly unprecedented, attention to public procurement and commercial practice in government. Our aim at the NAO is to provide an independent and evidence-based perspective, on how public authorities can achieve better outcomes and value […]
At the National Audit Office, we come across many business cases when looking at government programmes. A strong business case is vital for effective decision making and for successfully delivering intended outcomes. The foundation of a business case is a clear understanding of what success will look like for a programme – the strategic case. […]
Use of process mining to help understand the Home Office’s operation of the Windrush Compensation Scheme
In our ever-increasing digital and automatized world, certain buzzwords are becoming more centre stage in the public sector. One of them is “artificial intelligence”. While the concept, and development, of artificial intelligence is not new (artificial intelligence was first recognised as a formal discipline in the mid-1950s), it is a word that has been casually […]
Good regulation can be used to achieve a range of different aims and opportunities. It can support innovation, make workplaces safer, or help to keep essential services affordable.
We’ve developed a set of principles and examples outlining good practice in Annual Reporting
The shielding programme was a swift government wide response to identify and protect clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people against COVID-19. Our recent report on Protecting and supporting the clinically extremely vulnerable during lockdown, shows how government quickly recognised the need to provide food, medicines and basic care to those CEV people shielding. This had to […]
Imagine being asked to design and provide a service that meets the needs of everyone in your street. This crossed my mind when the borough where I live in London became a surge testing location for coronavirus. For me that means producing a service that works for Margaret and David, the retired couple that have […]
Like governments around the world, ours has committed unprecedented amounts of public money to the fight against coronavirus. By the end of 2020, this reached £271 billion in the UK and will continue to increase. As the UK’s independent public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office has been tracking the Government’s pandemic spending commitments, reporting […]
We are keen to support those responsible for both delivering and overseeing government programmes. In that spirit, we today publish our Framework to review programmes summarising what we ask when auditing major programmes. It draws from our experience of around 200 studies and includes examples of what we have seen. Our work provides insights on […]
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the NAO’s role has been to provide Parliament and the public with evidence-based reports on how public money has been used to tackle the crisis. So far we have published 12 reports on different elements of the pandemic response, including for example the test and trace programme; the procurement of […]
Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions will be a colossal challenge for the UK and one that will require all parts of government to work together. The NAO has audited numerous cross-government projects and programmes in the past, ranging from the 2012 Olympics to preparations for EU Exit. This experience has given us a deep […]
Given the wide-reaching impact of membership of the EU, preparing for the UK’s departure from the EU represented a significant challenge to government, with considerable potential consequences for businesses and citizens. Our programme of work on EU Exit Over the last four years, the NAO has carried out a substantial programme of work on various […]
How we are working with international partners to assess the response to COVID-19.
I last posted to this blog in late April as the country was in the teeth of the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining how we were maintaining our operations and adjusting our work programme in the light of the government response to the virus. Now, in late July, most of the UK is gradually emerging from lockdown […]