The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion on the 2011-12 financial statements of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) because of irregular ex-gratia payments, totalling £51,000, made by the Agency to its staff.
Since privatisation, Ofwat and Defra have overseen major improvements in water quality and service quality. Customers have seen a marked rise in bills but not the benefits of companies’ unexpected financial gains.
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.
Internal audit costs government around £70 million each year, but quality varies and it is poor value for money.
This report focuses on what Official Development Assistance spending is achieving in practice.
ERG has contributed significantly to departmental savings in 2011-12 but substantial and sustainable new savings streams will be needed to achieve £20bn of savings in 2014-15.
The Group’s priorities are to improve government efficiency and reform public services. It is too soon to judge its success. This review details various challenges that the Group faces and is intended to provide an objective baseline against which its progress can be assessed.
The NAO review looked at what the BBC is doing to maximise the efficiency of radio production across its Network and Nations radio stations, focusing on the use of cost comparisons for similar programme types within the BBC stations and with commercial competitors, the BBC’s efficiency plans and the BBC’s assessment of the impact of efficiency initiatives on performance.
“When I last reported on the Efficiency Programme, nearly a year ago, I concluded that reported efficiency gains should all be treated as provisional. Since then, progress has been made in improving the robustness of how gains are measured. But many reported efficiency gains still carry a significant risk of inaccuracy.
“In this spending period, there is more to do to show that all reported gains are both genuine and sustainable. Looking further ahead the next spending period provides an opportunity to ensure that efficiency is improved across all aspects of the business.”
This briefing for the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee provides an overview of the key features of the policy and regulatory framework for electricity generation, and the nature of the transition required over the next 10 years to meet emissions reduction and renewable energy targets.
