Following reforms to decision-making and the appeal process in social security benefits, introduced in 1999 by the Department for Work and Pensions, the number of appeals against decisions has fallen overall by around 15 per cent and waiting times for appeal hearings have been cut. Since the reforms, decision-making performance for some benefits, but not […]
This is the second report on Agile delivery in which we aim to provide practical support to those in publicly funded bodies who are using or considering using the approach in business change programmes.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament on the £1.2 billion expansion of the PRIME contract, that DWP had succeeded in getting the deal it had set out to achieve. The decision to proceed via a non-competitive negotiation with LST was the right one. DWP introduced competitive tension into […]
The Department for Work and Pensions have made good progress in tackling benefit fraud and estimating the level of fraud and error in key benefits, according to the National Audit Office. By March 2002 the Department had cut the estimated level of fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance by 24 per cent […]
The Better Regulation Executive is currently reviewing controls on regulation. This document is the National Audit Office’s submission to that review. It is based on a combination of our previous work and new work with five case study departments earlier this year.
This investigation sets out how the Department for Education set up and implemented the free school meals voucher scheme.
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn has qualified his opinion on the Child Support Agency’s account for the tenth year running because of high levels of error in the amounts considered as recoverable from non-resident parents. At the 31 March 2004, £976 million was due to be collected by the Agency from […]
Opra, the UK body responsible for regulating the governance of work-based pensions, needs to build on its achievements by focusing more closely on the risks to the members of pension schemes, according to a report published to Parliament today by Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office. The report concludes that Opra […]
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn has qualified the Northern Ireland National Insurance Fund Account for 2002-03 because of the estimated high level of benefit being lost through fraud and error. This is the third year running for which Sir John has qualified his opinion on the account. The Northern Ireland Department […]
Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that good progress has been made in recent years in increasing the overall employment rate for older people. The gap between the proportion of older people in work compared to the general working population has also narrowed by 1 per cent over […]
Head of the NAO Sir John Bourn reported to Parliament today that, according to the Department for Work and Pensions’ estimate, £3 billion may have been lost from benefit payments, the same amount as reported in 2001-2002. This constitutes some 2.7 per cent of the £112 billion of gross expenditure recorded in the Department’s resource […]
This report looks at how effectively government met the needs of clinically extremely vulnerable through the shielding programme.
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn has qualified his audit opinion on the Department for Work and Pensions’ Resource Accounts for 2001-2002 because of significant levels of estimated fraud and error in welfare benefits. As much as £3 billion may have been lost from benefit payments in 2001-2002, according to the Department’s […]
The Whole of Government Accounts consolidates the public sector’s accounts to produce a picture of the UK’s public finances.
Head of the National Audit Office, Sir John Bourn, reported today that, in recognising the good progress made by the Department for Work and Pensions and other public bodies working with pensioners in encouraging benefit take up, more could be done. Although two million pensioners live in low-income households, many tens of thousand miss out […]
A 10 year failure to update pensions leaflets correctly has caused considerable distress to many thousands of people, and will cost the taxpayer at least £2.5 billion, and probably considerably more, according to two reports to Parliament published today. The two reports* – one by Sir John Bourn, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the […]
The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) are the consolidated financial statements for the whole of the UK public sector, showing what the UK Government spends and receives, and what it owns and owes.
The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) are an audited set of accounts showing in one place the financial position of the whole public sector. However, the NAO considers that the picture is incomplete.
The government now accepts the urgent need for a skilled cross-departmental leadership group – but this requires changing the long-standing culture of the Senior Civil Service.