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 […]
The strategic case for HS2, in terms of increasing rail capacity and generating regional growth, has still to be demonstrated clearly.
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 […]
By operating in a more integrated way, government could reduce inefficiencies in public services and deliver a better service to citizens.
This report examines how the DWP is managing the process of getting to first payment in Universal Credit.
This report examines whether the Home Office is well placed to deliver value for money from the Police Uplift Programme.
This report evaluates whether Defra’s management of new tree-planting schemes is likely to achieve value for money.
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 […]
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.
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.
This report examines the progress the government has made in developing specialist skills in the civil service.
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.
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 […]
This commentary, on the first set of Work Programme data, has been produced for the Committee of Public Accounts.
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.
Older ICT systems critical for the delivery of key public services (‘legacy ICT’) expose departments to risks which must be understood and managed.
This report provides a summary of the UK government’s response to COVID-19 to date.
This report assesses the Home Office’s progress in delivering the National Law Enforcement Data Service programme to replace outdated police ICT systems.