There have been improvements in the way government plans and manages public sector activity, but the NAO does not consider that there exists a coherent, enduring framework for planning and management.
This report is published alongside ‘Spending Review 2015’.
The Building Public Trust Awards recognise outstanding corporate reporting that builds trust and transparency. This interactive document illustrates a range of good practice examples in public sector reports.
Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Whole of Government Accounts 2018-2019.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has made progress in setting up its new programme to release enough public sector land for 160,000 homes by 2020 but the programme has had a relatively slow start.
This report applies experience from auditing cross-government challenges to highlight the risks government needs to manage to achieve net zero.
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. The public sector constructs and maintains many financial relationships with third sector organisations (TSOs). Commonly, the public body pays the TSO for the provision of a service [Note 1] specified by the public body [Note 2]. Practical example: Service specified by public body In one area, the local […]
This report examines the strategic management of the Environmental Land Management scheme.
There have been improvements in the way government plans and manages public sector activity, but the NAO does not consider that there exists a coherent, enduring framework for planning and management.
This report is published alongside ‘Government’s management of its performance: progress with single departmental plans’.
This investigation provides an account of how public money was used to increase the number of ventilators available to the NHS.
Responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to the NAO between April and December 2022.
The NAO’s work includes looking at a huge range of government activities, and the setting up and managing of commercial arrangements are central to many of them. This became very clear when looking back at twenty years of our work auditing government’s spending and reporting on its value for money for taxpayers. Over this time, […]
This report provides information on managing PFI contracts when they end and considers whether government is preparing for expiry appropriately.
Last December, the government published a Green Paper on Transforming Public Procurement. It stressed that investments should be subject to consideration of the public good, including supporting national priorities. It discussed leveraging commercial activity to achieve social and environmental value. For our good practice guidance for managing the commercial lifecycle, we examined similar opportunities and […]
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. There are various models of the commissioning cycle. For example, the NHS model uses nine elements within three broader stages – strategic planning, procuring services, and monitoring and evaluation. The Institute for Public Care model is based upon four key performance management elements – analyse, plan, do […]
The National Audit Office has existed in its present form since 1983. A public audit function for central government within the UK has a much longer history.
This report examines whether the British Business Bank is improving access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises.
This report focuses on the role of the centre of government in supporting government departments’ oversight of arm’s-length bodies.
The NAO’s good practice guide for managing the commercial lifecycle The government’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic has drawn renewed, and possibly unprecedented, attention to public procurement and commercial practice in government. Our aim at the NAO is to provide an independent and evidence-based perspective, on how public authorities can achieve better outcomes and value […]
This investigation outlines the government’s strategy and objectives for managing land disposals and the progress of several key disposal programmes.
This report sets out the facts about the maintenance of the museums and galleries sponsored by government.