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.
Lessons from the large body of experience of using PFI can be applied to improve other forms of procurement. Government should also do more to act as an ‘intelligent customer’ in the procurement and management of projects.
The HS1 project has delivered a high performing line, which was subsequently sold in a well-managed way. But international passenger numbers are falling far short of forecasts and the project costs exceed the value of journey time saving benefits.
This paper sets out a framework for effective management of staff costs in a challenging environment of cost reduction in public services. It builds on the high level principles set out in the NAO’s short guide to structured cost reduction.
We have published this model to provide guidance to Departments on HMT’s and NAO’s expectations of how they should manage their programmes involving PPP and PFI projects.
The scale of the support currently provided to UK banks has fallen from a peak of £955 billion to £512 billion, but the amount of cash currently borrowed by the Government to support banks has risen by £7 billion since December 2009. It is likely the taxpayer will be providing support for years to come.
This report examines how PFI performs to contracted timetable and to price.
Good financial management is at the core of good management in government. It supports decision making and the effective running of organisations.
Venture capital funds injected by government into young companies can provide benefit to them, allowing them to raise finance not available through conventional means and to grow. But so far the funds have not been managed as a programme and lack a robust framework of objectives to measure performance, according to a report published by […]
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 […]
Limitations in Network Rail’s cost information has hampered the ability of the Office of Rail Regulation to assess efficiency savings.
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.
The use of PFI by local authorities to improve housing, usually in areas with a high need for housing and where stock condition is particularly poor, has had a measure of success. However, risks to value for money of the programme have not been managed.
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.
This report examines the government’s management of the reduction in Official Development Assistance spending.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS’s) free face-to-face advice for people struggling with debt has helped more people than planned, at slightly less than the planned cost per person, and is highly regarded by those that use it. However, demand is now outstripping capacity.
This investigation examines the British Steel Pension Scheme.
The Decision Support Tool for public bodies in England provides practical support to officials who are involved in making, or advising on, ‘real-life’ decisions about the design of appropriate funding relationships with third sector organisations. It takes into account such issues as programme objectives, funding channels, duration of award, full cost recovery, EU state aid […]
Reports produced by the House of Commons’ Committee of Public Accounts (the PAC) following hearings based on our PFI and PPP investigations include nearly 1000 recommendations.
We have collected these recommendations and the related Treasury responses into a PFI and PPP/Privatisation Recommendations database last updated: 19/06/2009.
“Intelligent Monitoring” is the term we use for putting into practice the principles of good monitoring and for avoiding the pitfalls of poor practice in monitoring.