On 15 January 2018, Carillion declared insolvency and the Official Receiver, an employee of the Insolvency Service, started to liquidate its assets and contracts. This report focuses on the role of the UK government in preparing for and managing the liquidation of Carillion.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that the failure to introduce the Benefits Payment Card had cost the Department of Social Security some £127 million in nugatory system development. Delays in the Card programme, which was part of a pioneering Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project designed also to […]
There has been a reduction in the estimated loss of social security benefit through fraud and error compared to previous years, according to a National Audit Office report published today. However, the total amount of Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance overpaid in 2000-2001, over £1 billion, is still substantial. As a result, head of the […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that the Department for Education and Skills has made a good start to its long-term strategy to improve the levels of adult literacy and numeracy in England, but there are more challenges ahead. While the Skills for Life Strategy has met its 2004 target, […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament on the 2000-2001 Teachers’ Pension Scheme (England and Wales) Resource Account. He has limited the scope of the audit opinion because the Managers of the Scheme were unable to provide him at the date of his opinion with sufficient evidence to support […]
This report forms part of the National Audi Office’s programme of work to examine how the government is overseeing and implementing the UK’s exit from the EU. It is our first report on the financial settlement, assessing HM Treasury’s estimate of the cost of the settlement.
The C&AG has qualified his audit opinions on the Client Funds Accounts prepared by the Department for Work and Pensions for the 1993 and 2003 Child Maintenance Schemes on the grounds of material levels of irregular receipts and payments and misstated arrears balances. However he has given a clean audit opinion on the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme Account after improvements in the accuracy of assessing child maintenance claims.
14 December 2017
The Department for Work and Pensions successfully managed the introduction of the new state pension, but it is not yet clear whether the simplified system will encourage people to save more for their retirement.
The Ministry of Defence, under pressure to make rapid financial savings, is significantly reducing the size of its workforce, by over 54,000 personnel. A report today by the National Audit Office has found that these reductions are happening in advance of the Department’s fully understanding how it will operate with significantly fewer staff.
The New Deal for Young People achieved its target of placing 250,000 young people into work in September 2000, and by October 2001 had helped 339,000 into jobs. It has had a positive effect on levels of youth employment and on the economy more broadly, although, as with other labour market programmes, many of these […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament the results of his examination of the Child Support Agency’s Client Funds Account for 1999-2000. Sir John qualified his opinion on the account due to the level of error in receipts from non resident parents and errors in outstanding maintenance balances, arising […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported the results of his examination of the Benefits Agency’s Appropriation Account. Sir John qualified his audit opinion on the account due to the level of benefit fraud and the level of error in benefit awards, principally in income support and jobseeker’s allowance. This account […]
This investigation covers a single, major cause of underpayment error in ESA. This error relates to people whose existing benefit claim was converted to ESA and who were entitled to income-related ESA but were only awarded contribution-based ESA.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has improved the maturity of its financial management in a number of areas, but the NAO has not been able to conclude that the Department is achieving value for money.
We have published a series of reports which explore some of the major risks to public finances highlighted in the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA).
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs continues to make progress in ensuring that income tax levied under the Scottish rate will be assessed and collected properly, but still faces significant challenges to ensure that all Scottish taxpayers are correctly identified
The National Audit Office has today published the findings of its investigation into the Department for Work & Pensions’ closure of its 1993 and 2003 ‘Child Support Agency’ child maintenance schemes.