In 2006-07, almost 800,000 incidents caused 14 million minutes of delay to rail journeys costing a minimum of £1 billion in terms of time lost to passengers, according to a report released today by the National Audit Office. There was a sharp increase in delay minutes after the Hatfield derailment in October 2000 and the […]
Until the government is able to establish effective oversight of the modern slavery system as a whole, it will not be able to significantly reduce the prevalence of modern slavery or show that it is achieving value for money.
DWP does not yet have enough evidence to demonstrate that its activities to reduce the cost of mistakes by customers have been value for money. Although mistakes are difficult to detect, correct and prevent, the scale of overpayments and underpayments demonstrates a clear need for improvement.
The Department of Health has met its target to reduce MRSA bloodstream infections by 50 per cent by 2008 and has made encouraging progress towards its target to reduce Clostridium difficile infections, according to a National Audit Office report published today. However, blood stream infections due to other causes may be increasing. There is also […]
The report examines progress that the Department of Health & Social Care, NHS England, NHS Improvement and other stakeholders are making in reducing the impact of emergency admissions on acute hospitals. The report takes a whole-system approach, and looks at action across acute, primary, community and social care systems.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that Home Office grants of £927 million to Police Basic Command Units, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in England and Community Safety Partnerships in Wales to fund crime reduction work have contributed in part to a 22 per cent reduction in the number of […]
The BBC’s cost reduction programme has so far delivered value for money. However, the need to make further savings from productivity improvements will involve more challenging and potentially disruptive changes to structures and ways of working.
The Department for Work and Pensions will have to make rapid progress in reorganising the way it operates if it is to meet its target of cutting costs by £20 billion in four years while achieving substantial reform of the welfare system.
The Department for Transport started its preparations for the 2010 spending review early and took steps to improve and challenge the evidence on which it based its decisions with a view to securing value for money.
HMRC faces a significant challenge in securing a £1.6 billion reduction in running costs over the next four years, at the same time as increasing tax revenues, improving customer service and achieving reductions in welfare payments.
This report examines how well the government has used public money to support the uptake of ultra-low emission cars.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Skills Funding Agency are pursuing a range of initiatives to simplify funding, qualification and assurance systems in further education. However, they do not know the scale of the problem faced by further education colleges and other providers.
Alcohol-related ill-health is an increasing burden for the National Health Service. Alcohol misuse costs the health service in the order of £2.7 billion a year, but efforts to address it locally are not in general well-planned, the National Audit Office reported today. The Department of Health is however raising the profile of alcohol misuse by […]
There is a shortfall of 5,170 (2.8 per cent) trained Armed Forces personnel against the Ministry of Defence’s estimated requirements. Only the Army is within “manning balance”, and there are wider shortages of personnel in specific trade groups. According to today’s report to Parliament, by head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn, there […]
The National Audit Office has today reported that the processes used by central government to recruit civil servants do not fully deliver value for money. Departments are working to understand and improve parts of the external recruitment process but more can be done. In 2007-08, central government recruited more than 40,000 new staff, with 78 […]
The amount recovered has increased but NHS hospital trusts remain some way from complying in full with the requirement to recover the cost of treating overseas visitors.
The successful commercialisation of intellectual property in agricultural research requires identifying the best opportunities for commercial exploitation of publicly financed research; obtaining further funds to develop and protect ideas; and managing risks when making deals and establishing spin-out companies. These points are brought out in a National Audit Office report today on the performance of […]
The St Helena airport’s planned opening date in May 2016 has been postponed as outstanding safety concerns are addressed, potentially adding to the project’s cost and delaying its benefits.