BBC TV Licence fee collection
Published on:The BBC has improved the value for money of its activity, but there is scope to make improvements, particularly on licence fee evasion and the incomplete transition programme.
The BBC has improved the value for money of its activity, but there is scope to make improvements, particularly on licence fee evasion and the incomplete transition programme.
Staff numbers and costs have reduced significantly in the last five years. Not enough planning, however, has gone into making sure that the reductions are sustainable.
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 overview of the NAO’s work on the government’s management of contracting examines subjects including the government’s commercial capability, accountability and transparency, and its management of contracted-out service delivery.
The case for a huge expansion of electronic monitoring using GPS was unproven, but the Ministry of Justice pursued an overly ambitious and high risk strategy anyway. Ultimately it has not delivered.
The Department has made good progress since we last reported on Carrier Strike, however it still has a lot to do to meet its targets at the end of 2020.
Government’s programme to transfer back-office functions to two shared service centres has made savings but has not achieved value for money to date.
The NAO’s findings from its investigation into whether £1.3m of donations from a charity, the William Openshaw Street Foundation, were eligible to be matched with funds from the Cabinet Office’s Grassroots Grants Programme.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has not achieved value for money for its £100 million spend on the second competition for government financial support for carbon capture storage.
Fire and rescue authorities have managed funding reductions well. The Department for Communities and Local Government should, however, seek greater assurance that authorities are maintaining service standards and delivering value for money locally
It is not possible to show that the Crown Commercial Service has achieved more than departments would otherwise have achieved by buying common goods and services themselves.
By reducing the number of its offices and moving to a regional centre model HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) hopes to significantly reduce its running costs and modernise the way it works. HMRC’s original plan has proved unrealistic and is now reconsidering the scope and timing of the programme. Any changes will need to be carefully managed to avoid diminishing the long term value of the strategy.
Challenging objectives for improving access to general practice have been set by the Department and NHS England, but a more coordinated approach and stronger incentives are needed.
Digital transformation has a mixed track record across government. It has not yet provided a level of change that will allow government to further reduce costs while still meeting people’s needs.
The government is selling assets on an unprecedented scale but, given the equally large scale of its new loans and other initiatives, the overall projected net effect is a £200m increase in borrowing.
This is an investigation into the contractual arrangements that UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) had in place since 2013-14 for the outsourcing of sector specialist services with PA Consulting. PA received £18.8million in the first year of a contract due to last three years. Following concerns about the way the contract had been priced UKTI terminated the contract in January 2016 and agreed a commercial settlement with PA in May 2016.
The sale of Eurostar generated proceeds of £757m. The government prepared well for the sale and achieved its objectives to maximise proceeds. The sale illustrates some general lessons for government as it embarks on its asset sales programme.
Overall spending on discretionary local welfare support by central and local government has reduced since April 2013. The consequences of this gap in provision are not understood.
HMRC aimed to move more customers online thereby reducing staff costs but significant numbers of staff were let go before technical improvements were completed leading to a collapse in service quality in 2015. Services have since improved.
The Department has committed electricity consumers and taxpayers to a high cost and risky deal in a changing energy marketplace. We cannot say the Department has maximised the chances that it will achieve value for money.