The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion on the 2011-12 financial statements of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) because of irregular ex-gratia payments, totalling £51,000, made by the Agency to its staff.
Government’s plans for asylum accommodation will cost more than using hotels, and large sites are housing fewer people than planned.
This report aims to evaluate and conclude on HM Treasury’s overall approach to over-indebtedness.
Cloud services’ can bring cost and performance benefits. But they can also bring new challenges and risks. To help leaders oversee decision-making and implementation of cloud services, we recently published ‘Guidance for audit committees on cloud services’. The magazine, Public Sector Executive, invited us to outline the issues in the article The National Audit Office’s guide […]
Not all local authorities’ Council Tax support scheme will achieve the objectives outlined by the Department of Communities and Local Government.
Gaps in how public bodies manage conflicts of interest among staff pose a risk to government’s ability to perform its functions objectively.
The lack of predictability of funding for highways authorities has practical implications for road networks and may lead to increased costs in the long term.
A new NAO report finds that the proportion of benefit expenditure overpaid remains too high, but overpayment levels are now reducing.
Improvements have been made to the running of the Regional Growth Fund, but there is still a significant amount of public money to allocate through the Fund.
Until the government is able to establish effective oversight of the modern slavery system as a whole, it will not be able to significantly reduce the prevalence of modern slavery or show that it is achieving value for money.
This briefing draws out findings from 46 NAO reports since 2008-09 that are relevant to local delivery. It communicates the wide range of work we have undertaken and the main lessons that have arisen from it.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas Morse, has qualified his opinion on the 2010-11 House of Commons Members Accounts because information on MPs whose expense claims are under investigation by the police was not made available for audit.
In this report, we assess the value for money of the Department for Work and Pensions’ introduction of Universal Credit.
The UK is losing billions of pounds a year due to tax evasion by small businesses, which can easily exploit weaknesses in government systems.
The new policing oversight framework has been in place for a year but already there are gaps in the system with the potential to undermine accountability both to the Home Office and the public.
Our report looks at why home to school transport is one of the fastest growing areas of spending for local authorities in England.
Pressured public services and delays to reform the funding system are contributing to local authorities’ finances becoming unsustainable.
The Ministry of Justice does not know whether everyone eligible for legal aid can access it and government needs to do more to ensure the sustainability of the legal aid market if it is to achieve value for money.
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.
2019 will be a pivotal year for local government in England. Numerous difficult and open-ended questions need rapid resolution, at a time when government focus and capacity is directed elsewhere. Drawing on a number of our recent reports, here I explore some of the challenges facing the sector, from budget cuts and growing social care […]