Two government programmes aiming to help families with multiple challenges, such as unemployment and anti-social behaviour, are starting to provide benefits but considerable challenges remain.
Long-standing issues in the rail industry and the scale of the procurements led to the DfT’s decision to lead the procurements itself, despite not having led a major rolling stock procurement before.
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn today reported to Parliament on the propriety of the Department of Health’s award of a contract to PowderJect Pharmaceuticals to supply smallpox vaccine. The report also covers the procedures followed by the Department in purchasing emergency supplies of smallpox and anthrax vaccine; and the Department’s general […]
The Highways Agency’s PFI contract to widen the M25 could have been better value for money. The slowness with which it was taken forward resulted in higher financing costs, and the Agency was slow to investigate a potentially cheaper alternative to widening.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the organisations it sponsors spend some £575 million a year buying goods and services. Today’s report to Parliament by the head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn concludes that procurement capabilities and practices amongst the organisations are, on the whole, underdeveloped and that better procurement practice […]
The National Audit Office has today published a review, which summarizes the main elements of the reform currently under way in the probation sector, and identifies the key issues now facing those involved in probation.
Reports produced by the House of Commons’ Committee of Public Accounts (the PAC) following hearings based on our PFI and PPP investigations include nearly 1000 recommendations.
We have collected these recommendations and the related Treasury responses into a PFI and PPP/Privatisation Recommendations database last updated: 19/06/2009.
This paper has been prepared for the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee to support their inquiry on Private Finance.
Reported fraud in Employment Programmes is low despite past flaws such as in the New Deal. New improvement controls are better, yet risks remain.
This report covers recent trends in pressures on children’s social care demand and activity and national and local government’s response.
In 2007 the National Audit Office reported that primary care trusts (PCTs) could save more than £200 million a year without compromising patient care if GPs prescribed cheaper, generic medicines. Keele University has now confirmed the NAO’s finding by calculating that almost £400 million has been saved by the Department of Health, the NHS and […]
GPs could prescribe lower cost clinically effective medicines without affecting patient care, according to Parliament’s spending watchdog. And this could save primary care trusts (PCTs) more than £200 million a year. Today’s report by the National Audit Office also points out that unused or wasted drugs could cost the NHS at least £100 million a […]
This briefing sets out government’s plans and progress to date in opening up overseas markets to UK businesses.
UK Sport has developed a strategy to achieve the Government’s ambitions for the GB teams to finish fourth in the Olympic medal table and to maintain second in the Paralympics table at the London 2012 Games. The achievements of athletes at recent elite international events suggest performance levels are improving. The NAO’s report identifies a […]
Our report looks at whether the preparations undertaken by DSIT (and previously DCMS) and Ofcom for the implementation of the new online safety legislation are sufficiently advanced.
Government set an ambitious timetable to expand free childcare; consequently, it’s facing uncertainty on feasibility, costs, and benefits.
There are major risks the Department of Energy and Climate Change must address to achieve value for money from its £11.3 billion national programme to install ‘smart’ electricity and gas meters in all homes and smaller non-domestic premises in Great Britain from 2014 to 2019.
In its progress report on the Olympic and Paralympic Games the National Audit Office has found that with four years to go until the start of the Games, the preparations have progressed in important ways. In particular, there has been good progress in preparing the Olympic Park site and construction activities are broadly on track. […]
The preparations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are going well overall and, despite time pressures, the Olympic Delivery Authority remains on course to deliver its construction programme.