The report covers HMRC’s progress in operating the PAYE service, its implementation of its new Real Time Information service and its performance in tax collection and in reducing error and fraud in personal tax credits.
Government has given less attention to grants than to other policy funding mechanisms, despite grant funding being higher in value, making up 41 per cent (£292 billion) of its total expenditure.
There are some good examples across government of alternatives to regulation being used to achieve policy objectives. However more needs to done to share these examples to highlight when alternatives are most likely to work and how they should be designed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion owing to the material level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure.
The National Audit Office has prepared this briefing on environmental protection for the Environmental Audit Committee. It is a follow up to the environmental protection briefing which the NAO prepared for the Committee in August 2010, and focusses on the progress made by the government in this area since 2010.
In June 2011, the National Audit Office reported on the system for enforcing consumer law and the Government subsequently made a series of reforms to the consumer landscape. This update report summarises recent changes and sets out the proposed benefits to consumers, businesses and taxpayers as well as the possible risks to be managed.
The Department was successful in floating Royal Mail. But its approach was marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer.
The new system of regulating financial services will need to demonstrate in future that the cost of two regulators achieves value for money for customers.
The Help to Buy equity loan scheme is improving access to mortgage finance, but the scheme’s costs will be substantial.
Government is owed a large amount of money but has no overall view of its debt reduction objectives nor of the financial risk that the debt poses.
Inadequate forecasting is an entrenched problem for government departments, leading to poor value for money and increased costs for the taxpayer.
The DfT and Transport for London have done well to protect taxpayers’ interests in Crossrail but risks remain including delivery of the trains.
Treasury expects all departments to evaluate the ex post impacts and costs of all their interventions, including spending, taxation and regulation. This activity should provide valuable information on the cost-effectiveness of government interventions, for the purposes of accountability and to learn lessons to improve current and future policies.
The Government’s first sale of shares in Lloyds Banking Group was managed very effectively by United Kingdom Financial Investments Limited.
The Charity Commission is not regulating charities effectively. It fails to take tough action in some serious cases and makes poor use of its powers.
Two government programmes aiming to help families with multiple challenges, such as unemployment and anti-social behaviour, are starting to provide benefits but considerable challenges remain.
BIS will not be well-placed to secure value for money on student loan repayments until it has a more robust strategy to improve collection performance.
HMRC and the Treasury do not know if incentives designed to increase charitable giving, at a cost to the taxpayer of £940 million in 2012-13, have resulted in more income for charities.
The NAO challenges government and its private sector contractors to work together more effectively in taxpayers’ interest and address the issues behind the current crisis of confidence in contracting out public services.
The NAO challenges government and its private sector contractors to work together more effectively in taxpayers’ interest and address the issues behind the current crisis of confidence in contracting out public services.