Showing 1261 - 1280 of 2716 results

  3. HM Treasury: The Asset Protection Scheme

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    The Treasury’s Asset Protection Scheme to protect over £280 billion of Royal Bank of Scotland’s financial assets against losses had a beneficial impact on financial markets. But the Scheme has, so far, only been partially successful in encouraging lending to creditworthy borrowers on the scale originally envisaged.

  4. Management of NHS hospital productivity

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    Hospital productivity has fallen over the last ten years. There have been significant increases in  funding and hospitals have used this to deliver against national priorities, but they need to provide more leadership, management and clinical engagement to optimise the use of additional resources and deliver value for money.

  5. Managing civil tax investigations

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    HMRC’s civil investigations directorates, which examine serious cases of suspected tax evasion, have generated increasing returns from their work, while reducing resources. However, there is scope for them to achieve more.

  6. Maintaining the financial stability of UK banks: Update on the support schemes

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    The scale of the support currently provided to UK banks has fallen from a peak of £955 billion to £512 billion, but the amount of cash currently borrowed by the Government to support banks has risen by £7 billion since December 2009. It is likely the taxpayer will be providing support for years to come.

  8. The youth justice system in England and Wales: Reducing offending by young people

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    Recent improvements to the youth justice system have contributed to reductions in recorded youth crime. However, young offenders who receive more serious community or custodial sentences remain as likely to reoffend as they were ten years ago when the youth justice system was brought in.

  9. The impact of the 2007-08 changes to public service pensions

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    Changes made in 2007-08 to public service pension schemes are on course to deliver savings and stabilise pension costs. However the value for money of the changes cannot be demonstrated in the absence of a strategic assessment of their long term impact on staff motivation and retention.

  11. Social Fund Account 2009-10

    Report Financial audit

    Published on:

    The C&AG has qualified the Social Fund Account for the seventh consecutive year. The account has been qualified because of material levels of error in discretionary awards, and in Funeral Expense Payments. He has also qualified, for the first time, his opinion on Sure Start Maternity Grants.

  15. Criminal justice landscape review

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    The criminal justice system, overseen by the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office, is intended to cut crime, protect the public and punish offenders.

  16. Minimising the cost of administrative errors in the benefit system

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    DWP has not reduced the mistakes made by staff processing benefits. In 2009-10 it overpaid an estimated £1.1 billion and made underpayments of £500 million. However, the scale of the challenge facing the Department should not be underestimated.

  17. Procurement of the M25 private finance contract

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    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.

  18. Delivering the Cancer Reform Strategy

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    Improvements and efficiencies have been made in key areas of cancer care since the Cancer Reform Strategy was published. However, a lack of high quality information on costs of cancer services and their outcomes inhibits substantial further improvements.

  19. Educating the next generation of scientists

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    The Department for Education has made good progress in improving take-up and achievement in areas such as A-Level maths and GCSE Triple Science. However, there has been less success in increasing the number of science teachers, improving take-up of A-Level physics and raising the standards of school science facilities.

  20. Ofcom: The effectiveness of converged regulation

    Report Value for money

    Published on:

    Ofcom has saved some £23 million over the last five years. However, with its complex remit across the telecommunications sector, Ofcom needs a better articulation of the intended outcomes of its activities and how its work achieves those outcomes.