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 rate at which electronic care records systems are being put in place across the NHS under the National Programme for IT is falling far below expectations and the core aim that every patient should have an electronic care record under the Programme will not now be achieved.
This review examines whether the Department for Transport has in place suitable arrangements to secure value for money from Regional Funding Allocation Programme investment.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has improved the maturity of its financial management in a number of areas, but the NAO has not been able to conclude that the Department is achieving value for money.
The Better Regulation Executive and government departments are not yet in a position to achieve value for money in their management of regulation. However, they have developed important elements of a structured approach to achieving sustainable reductions in regulatory costs and have delivered significant benefits.
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.
The BBC’s approach to the early stages of its Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was disappointing and did not achieve value for money. However, since taking the Programme back in house, delivery of the system has progressed well, with users responding positively.
The NAO’s assessment of the maturity of process management in central government identifies areas of strength and opportunities to improve.
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.
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 Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified the 2009-10 accounts of the DWP, which have been qualified every year since 1988-89, because of the material level of fraud and error in expenditure on state benefits.
The MOD have been unable to provide evidence to support the existence and value of certain assets and inventory balances. In addition, the Department’s accounting policies are not fully compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards.
The Ministry of Justice has made progress in improving its financial management, but currently falls short of best practice in the consistency of its financial management approach, its understanding of its costs and the integration of its financial management systems and processes.
Impact Assessments, used to assess the need for and the likely impact of proposed government policy interventions, do not yet consistently provide a sound basis for assessing the merits of different policy proposals. Further improvement in the quality and use of Impact Assessments is needed to achieve value for money.
The National Audit Office and the Audit Commission have today called for public bodies to work together much more effectively than they currently do to maximise savings from procurement activities.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Natural England have not optimised value for money for the almost £200 million scheme to encourage farmers into organic farming and deliver environmental benefits, according to a National Audit Office report published today. The Organic Entry Level Stewardship scheme is overseen by the Department and run […]
The Regional Development Agencies’ physical regeneration programmes have helped to generate additional regional wealth. However, because of Agency weaknesses in identifying the projects which would maximise regional economic growth, the National Audit Office is unable to conclude the Agencies have secured as much benefit as they should have. Since 1999, the eight RDAs outside of […]
The Home Office has improved its approach to managing the portfolio of major projects for which it is responsible, according to a report today by the National Audit Office. The Home Office is currently managing over 30 major projects, more than any other central civil government department, with a combined estimated lifetime cost of £15 […]
Between May 2005 and June 2009, there were over 90 reorganisations to central government. But a report released today by the National Audit Office has found that these cannot demonstrate value for money, given that most had vague objectives and that costs and benefits were not tracked. The average annual cost of reorganisations is almost […]
The amount of harmful business waste sent to landfill has fallen, but it is not possible to say how much of this reduction is down to a £240 million government programme, according to a National Audit Office report published today. The NAO was unable to conclude whether the spending was value for money because the […]