This impacts case study shows how our work on these important policy mechanisms led HM Revenue & Customs and HM Treasury to take action on ensuring tax reliefs are achieving their aims, administered in accordance with risk and are efficient.
It is one example of financial or non-financial benefits realised in 2014 as a result of our involvement, all of which are set out in our interactive PDF.
The first sale of government shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland in August 2015 was well planned and organised and represented value for money.
Amyas Morse, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has today issued a report on the 2014-15 accounts of HM Revenue & Customs.
The NAO supports Parliament by looking at how government has spent money delivering its policies and if that money has been used in the best way to achieve the intended outcome.
HM Treasury and HMRC do not keep track of tax reliefs intended to change behaviour, or adequately report to Parliament on whether tax reliefs work as expected.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has reported on the DVLA Trust Statement.
There are more than 1000 tax reliefs in the UK tax system. The NAO intends to carry out future work evaluating how they are developed and implemented.
It is important that the Government ensures its compliance programme reflects the changing risks within the labour market, and maintains its progress in ensuring all employers pay the minimum wage.
This blog highlights our upcoming good practice guide that’s a ‘how to’ guide for people managing a service. It also includes a separate summary on managing demand.
The NAO is publishing a suite of short guides, one for each government department, to assist House of Commons Select Committees.
HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) contract with Synnex-Concentrix UK Ltd was terminated in November 2016. The contract was designed to add capacity to HMRC’s programme of interventions to prevent or detect error and fraud in personal tax credits awards. HMRC estimated that the contract would save £1 billion over its three year life time and an estimated £193 million, excluding Concentrix’s costs, had been saved by the time of contract termination.
Data visualisation describing changes in English local authorities’ financial circumstances over the last decade.
The exact scale of fraud within government is unknown. The quality and completeness of fraud data is often variable.
The government continues to lose large amounts of money through fraud and error overpayments and many vulnerable people get less support than they are entitled to.
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.