“The way that the regulators have used their price reviews to drive down the costs of the major utility networks while the quality of the service delivered has improved, represents a great success story. But regulation inevitably has its drawbacks and I am glad that the regulators are considering how to head off the risks we have identified to incentives and future investment.”
“A significant amount of taxpayers’ money is being spent on delivering public services through electronic means. We have found examples of innovative practice but there is much to do to realise the full potential from using internet technology and ensure a sufficient number of people use public services delivered electronically. The major challenge is to get services on-line and to encourage and enable people to use them. Otherwise the considerable potential gains in departments’ efficiency will not be delivered and large amounts of public money will have been wasted.”
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), has reported to Parliament on the outcome of financial audit work undertaken by the NAO in central government over the past year. Today’s report examines the progress made by government departments in a number of important areas – most notably the development of corporate governance … Read more
“We have found good practice and good value being obtained in many sales of surplus NHS trust property and this needs to be built on. There needs to be better management of NHS surplus estate, better working with planning authorities, and better handling of some sales to speed things up to release resources for NHS developments to benefit patients. My recommendations and examples of good practice show how improvements can be achieved.”
“The majority of financial penalties are collected, but £74 million had to be written off in 2000-2001. Apart from the cost, the failure to bring in the remainder could undermine the credibility of financial penalties as a form of punishment. Significant improvements are needed to the management of the enforcement process, for example by improving the information available to magistrates on offenders’ means prior to sentence, ensuring that enforcement action is taken promptly, and providing greater support to staff through better training and improved management information.”
“The Department has made a quick and encouraging start to introducing IPTs and now needs to press ahead quickly with action to embed and drive forward the changes under the direction of the new Director General Smart Acquisition. My report makes a number of positive recommendations to help with this and I will be undertaking further work in the future to examine how successful IPTs are being in enabling a through-life approach to acquisition and improving performance2”.
“Causing casualties among our own or allied troops by “friendly fire” is an inevitable but profoundly regrettable risk of war. Combat Identification is a way of distinguishing friend from foe and every improvement in Combat Identification lowers the risks.
“The MoD now has a policy on Combat Identification and a strategy for taking the policy forward. In conjunction with NATO, it has more work to do to see its strategy implemented in full and my report makes recommendations to assist this process.”
“The New Deal for Young People has been successful in placing 339,000 unemployed young people into jobs, and the programme has also had a beneficial effect on the economy.
“The programme must continue to evolve to meet the needs of the increasing proportion of clients with severe or multiple barriers to employment and the changing economic climate. It is therefore vital that the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus continue to monitor and evaluate the programme’s effectiveness. In particular, they must evaluate the changes introduced to the programme to ensure that it continues to help these vulnerable young people and provide good value for taxpayers’ money.”
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, has published his report on the operation and wind up of Teesside Development Corporation. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report is in response to concerns raised with him by three Members of Parliament for the North East of England and a former contractor of the Corporation. … Read more
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament on the costs of the departure of Mr Derek Casey, the former Chief Executive of Sport England. In drawing Parliament’s attention to this matter Sir John has not qualified his audit opinion on either the Sport England grant-in-aid or lottery fund accounts … Read more
