The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas Morse, has qualified his audit opinion on the regularity of the 2015-16 accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions. This is owing to the unacceptably high level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure, other than State Pension where the level of fraud and error is lower.
HMRC aimed to move more customers online thereby reducing staff costs but significant numbers of staff were let go before technical improvements were completed leading to a collapse in service quality in 2015. Services have since improved.
This report examines how the DWP is managing the process of getting to first payment in Universal Credit.
HMRC has made good progress towards maximising revenue and making cost savings but also needs to do much more to improve its customer service.
Not all local authorities’ Council Tax support scheme will achieve the objectives outlined by the Department of Communities and Local Government.
The welfare cap is encouraging a greater understanding of spending on some benefits and tax credits across government, but it is important that processes for managing the cap are reliable.
This report sets out the landscape of oil and gas decommissioning.
Government departments are making plans for achieving substantial efficiency savings by 2024-25, but what might this mean in practice?
An increasingly complex tax system is burdening government and business with billions in admin costs and rising.
Responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to the NAO in 2023.
This Departmental Overview is one of 17 we have produced covering our work on each major government department. It summarises our work on the HM Revenue & Customs 2012-13
In our ever-increasing digital and automatized world, certain buzzwords are becoming more centre stage in the public sector. One of them is “artificial intelligence”. While the concept, and development, of artificial intelligence is not new (artificial intelligence was first recognised as a formal discipline in the mid-1950s), it is a word that has been casually […]
HMRC has improved its approach to tackling error and fraud in tax credits but still lost £2.3 billion in 2010-11.
This report examines the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s management of its business support schemes.
Within the programme of improvement already started by HMRC, the NAO helped ensure that, in January 2013, HMRC committed to improving customer service.
This NAO impacts case study represents one example where there has been some beneficial change, whether financial or non-financial, resulting from our involvement.
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.
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 report details progress by HMRC in stabilising and operating the PAYE service and its progress towards the implementation of its new Real Time Information service. The report also covers HMRC’s performance in tackling VAT fraud, and in reducing error and fraud in personal tax credits.
Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions will be a colossal challenge for the UK and one that will require all parts of government to work together. The NAO has audited numerous cross-government projects and programmes in the past, ranging from the 2012 Olympics to preparations for EU Exit. This experience has given us a deep […]
Review of a sample of the data systems underpinning the input and impact indicators in HM Revenue & Customs’ Business Plan, Common Areas of Spend and wider management information.
This review was carried out on the 2012-15 Business Plan. Revised Business Plans were issued in June 2013.