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 […]
It is estimated that over a million social homes have been improved by the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Decent Homes Programme, which aims to improve the condition of homes for social housing tenants. The Department has also provided funding to improve conditions for vulnerable households in private sector accommodation. But the National Audit Office […]
This report considers: the Motability scheme’s customer offer and performance; Motability Operations’ financial model; and the scheme’s governance arrangements.
This study examines how the Home Office handled the impact of its immigration policies on the Windrush generation.
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 […]
An initiative, begun in 2004, by the National Offender Management Service to build a single offender management IT system for the prison and probation services has not delivered value for money. A National Audit Office investigation found the project had been hampered by poor management leading to a three-year delay, a doubling in project costs […]
The Pension Protection Fund, which protects private sector pensions, has delivered value for money in terms of investing efficiently and preparing adequately for the potential impact of future claims, a National Audit Office report says today. The Fund must take steps to ensure that it continues to deliver value for money in the future, particularly […]
Many academies are performing impressively in delivering the Academies Programme’s intended improvements. Most academies are achieving greater rates of improvement in academic attainment than their predecessor schools.
Venues and infrastructure for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games are on track to be delivered on time for the Games and the cost is currently forecast to be within the £9,325 million budget for the Games announced in March 2007, according to a progress report to Parliament by the National Audit Office. However, […]
Maintaining accurate address records of the 2.6 million Scottish taxpayers remains the biggest risk facing HM Revenue & Customs in ensuring that Scottish income tax is assessed and collected properly.
Government-led initiatives to help unemployed people find work are having a real impact. Programmes such as the New Deal have helped reduce the number of people on benefit, and the average length of claims. However, too many people still do not stay in work once they have found it and more now needs to be […]
Homelessness has increased across all measures since 2010, with many local authorities now seeing it as a risk to their financial sustainability.
The National Audit Office has concluded that the public support provided to UK banks by the Treasury was justified, given the scale of the economic and social costs if one or more major banks had collapsed. In providing that support, moreover, the Treasury met two of the government’s principal objectives: protecting depositors’ money in banks and […]
The report examines the system protecting consumers from scams, unfair trading, and unsafe goods. BEIS has made progress since our 2011 review, but needs to do more, particularly in the context of the growth of e-commerce.
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. […]
A third of major government projects due to deliver in the next five years are rated as in doubt or unachievable unless action is taken to improve delivery. Greater transparency on project performance is required.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, has today qualified his opinion on the Department for Work and Pensions accounts for the eighteenth consecutive year. This is because an estimated £2.5 billion has been lost to fraud and error in benefit payments, and because of uncertainties over the debts created by customers being […]
The service provided to students applying for finance in 2009 did not achieve value for money, according to a report today by the National Audit Office. There were major problems in the processing of applications – with fewer than half new applications being fully processed by the start of term – and in communications with […]
Plans to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of services such as human resources, payroll and finance could cost the Department for Transport £81 million (by March 2015) rather than saving £57 million as originally expected. There will need to be substantial improvements in the shared service centre’s productivity if the Department’s original targets are to […]
The current defence programme is unaffordable, according to a report from the National Audit Office. The Ministry of Defence has already reduced the deficit between the defence budget and planned expenditure by £15 billion, but a shortfall of between £6 billion and £36 billion remains. The financial crisis means a substantial increase in funding is […]