Investigation into the free school meals voucher scheme
This investigation sets out how the Department for Education set up and implemented the free school meals voucher scheme.
2 Dec 2020
Central government manages contracts with the private and third sector worth about £40 billion annually. Such contracts include providing services to citizens, military equipment, back office functions, custodial services, temporary workers and consultancy.
Poor management of commercial relationships has been a major cause of failures to achieve value for money in government projects and operations. To address this, government is currently reforming its commercial profession, including centralising the purchase of common goods and services, improving departments' capability and increasing its understanding of its key suppliers. In doing so it could benefit from our work identifying good practice in five key areas: government’s commercial capability, including governance, systems, information and people capability; market management including ways to encourage innovation and avoid over-dependence on too few suppliers; effective procurement approaches; good contract management; and ensuring government suppliers are transparent and accountable.
Key NAO publications:
This investigation sets out how the Department for Education set up and implemented the free school meals voucher scheme.
Over many years the NAO has reported on delays and cost overruns across significant Ministry of Defence (MoD) equipment procurement programmes, such as boats 4-7 of the Astute attack submarine (£1 billion over budget) and the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers (£2.75 billion over budget). Our recent report Defence Capabilities: delivering what was promised, found that … Read more
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