Despite providing substantially increased funding for PIDG (up to £700 million by 2015), the Department has not exercised enough oversight to ensure value for money has been achieved.
This briefing sets out government’s plans and progress to date in opening up overseas markets to UK businesses.
This an update on earlier reports by the NAO and Committee of Public Accounts on the progress of the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme. It focuses primarily on the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payments to English farmers and landowners and improvements to the process for the 2016 and future years.
The St Helena airport’s planned opening date in May 2016 has been postponed as outstanding safety concerns are addressed, potentially adding to the project’s cost and delaying its benefits.
The new directorates that replaced the former UKBA have made progress in some areas but not across the whole business.
The Department for International Development’s spending on humanitarian interventions has almost trebled between 2010-11 and 2014-15 to more than £1 billion per year, rising as a share of its total budget from 6% to 14%.
The FCO did well in 2009-10 in quickly bringing its expenditure down to within its budget. However, measurement and evaluation were limited. The FCO’s approach to cost reduction must now be fully strategic and sustainable. It will be vital to avoid damaging value for money through over-simplistic cuts.
The FCO and UKTI will need to contribute much more effectively to efforts to increase the value of UK exports to £1 trillion a year by 2020.
This memorandum supports the Committee of Public Accounts’ inquiry into the award of the contracts by the Department for Transport.
This report looks at how much government departments spent on their activities preparing for the UK’s exit from the EU.
