Since privatisation, Ofwat and Defra have overseen major improvements in water quality and service quality. Customers have seen a marked rise in bills but not the benefits of companies’ unexpected financial gains.
By operating in a more integrated way, government could reduce inefficiencies in public services and deliver a better service to citizens. A case study on the Whole-Place Community Budget pilots points to the potential benefits on offer where public services are integrated more effectively.
A detailed account of all our work, our performance progress and the impact of our work in 2023-24.
This report examines the performance, implementation, procurement and management of the Green Homes Grant scheme.
My outdoor tap leaks. Not very much, just a small drip. And though I put a bucket underneath to catch the drips, I’ll admit that sometimes the bucket overflows before I can use the water in my garden. I know I should find out if it’s just a dodgy washer or I need a replacement […]
This paper sets out how we constructed a counterfactual to establish how much water customers in England and Wales could have benefited from an alternative charging system between 2010/11 and 2014/15.
Payment by results (PbR) schemes are hard to get right, and are risky and costly for commissioners. Credible evidence for claimed benefits of PbR is now needed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas Morse, has qualified his audit opinion on the regularity of the 2014-15 accounts of the DWP, owing to the unacceptably high level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure.
Government can save significant sums of time and money by improving how it engages with technology suppliers.
The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s independent public spending watchdog. We support Parliament in holding government to account and we help improve public services through our high-quality audits.
The first in a series of blogs looking at the Commercial Lifecycle covers data.
FCDO’s £285mn investment in St Helena Airport has not yet achieved expected benefits, including increased tourism and self-generated income.
The Department for Education (DfE) must address issues surrounding student take-up to continue to scale up T Levels.
This report examines whether the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is likely to deliver value for money.
The C&AG has published his audit opinions for 2018-19 on the 1993, 2003 and 2012 Child Maintenance Schemes.
The NAO’s work includes looking at a huge range of government activities, and the setting up and managing of commercial arrangements are central to many of them. This became very clear when looking back at twenty years of our work auditing government’s spending and reporting on its value for money for taxpayers. Over this time, […]
This management report examines how the National Offender Management Service planned and is implementing the restructure of its headquarters.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has reported on the 2018-19 accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions.
This report sets out the process by which MHCLG chose the 101 towns in England it invited to develop Town Deals.
Our report examines whether MHCLG’s framework allows for the management of risks to local authorities from commercial property investment.