The Department for Work and Pensions have made good progress in tackling benefit fraud and estimating the level of fraud and error in key benefits, according to the National Audit Office. By March 2002 the Department had cut the estimated level of fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance by 24 per cent […]
This report examines whether Defra is well placed to redevelop the UK’s primary site for managing threats from animal diseases.
HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) contract with Synnex-Concentrix UK Ltd was terminated in November 2016. The contract was designed to add capacity to HMRC’s programme of interventions to prevent or detect error and fraud in personal tax credits awards. HMRC estimated that the contract would save £1 billion over its three year life time and an estimated £193 million, excluding Concentrix’s costs, had been saved by the time of contract termination.
This report sets out the NAO’s assessment of the delivery of the electronic monitoring (‘tagging’) transformation programme.
The Charity Commission has made early progress in addressing NAO and Public Accounts Committee recommendations, but significant challenges remain.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that the failure to introduce the Benefits Payment Card had cost the Department of Social Security some £127 million in nugatory system development. Delays in the Card programme, which was part of a pioneering Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project designed also to […]
In a report to Parliament today, head of the NAO Sir John Bourn recognised that the outsourcing of the Department of Social Security’s medical assessment service had reduced costs and speeded up the turnaround of work. But the standard of medical assessments and the quality of service to benefit customers need to improve. The service […]
The strategic case for HS2, in terms of increasing rail capacity and generating regional growth, has still to be demonstrated clearly.
This report examines how the DWP is managing the process of getting to first payment in Universal Credit.
This report evaluates whether Defra’s management of new tree-planting schemes is likely to achieve value for money.
This report examines whether the Home Office is well placed to deliver value for money from the Police Uplift Programme.
By operating in a more integrated way, government could reduce inefficiencies in public services and deliver a better service to citizens.
Oftel has taken steps to improve consumer awareness in the fixed line telecommunications market to help consumers take advantage of the choices available, according to a report presented to Parliament today by Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office. But the report recognises that while some consumers will choose not to switch […]
HM Treasury and HMRC do not keep track of tax reliefs intended to change behaviour, or adequately report to Parliament on whether tax reliefs work as expected.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has reported on the 2018-19 accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions.
This report applies experience from auditing cross-government challenges to highlight the risks government needs to manage to achieve net zero.
Universal Credit plans were driven by an ambitious timescale, and this led to the adoption of a new approach. The programme suffered from weak management and ineffective control.
This report examines the progress the government has made in developing specialist skills in the civil service.
Government has given less attention to grants than to other policy funding mechanisms, despite grant funding being higher in value, making up 41 per cent (£292 billion) of its total expenditure.