The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas Morse, has qualified his audit opinion on the regularity of the 2016-17 accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions. This is owing to the high level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure excluding State Pension, resulting in over and underpayments to claimants.
4 July 2017
This review looks at HM Treasury’s processes in its analysis of the impact of leaving the European Union, and provides comparisons with other published studies.
In May 2012, the Department of Transport expected the tram-train scheme to be completed by Dec 2015. It is now expected to be completed in May 2018.
Online fraud is now the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales, but has been overlooked by government, law enforcement and industry.
This report summarises our progress over the second year of the 2015-2018 Diversity & Inclusion strategy. As part of our commitment to the Public Sector Equality Duty we also publish equality data in a separate report.
Government does not know how many people in prison have a mental illness, how much it is spending on mental health in prisons or whether it is achieving its objectives. It is therefore hard to see how Government can be achieving value for money in its efforts to improve the mental health and well being of prisoners. In 2016 there were 40,161 incidents of self-harm in prisons and 120 self-inflicted deaths.
The Bank of England has made progress in its aim to operate in a more unified way following its expansion. More is needed to embed cultural change and deliver long term data projects.
The NAO has investigated how NHS Shared Business Services handled its backlog of unprocessed clinical correspondence.
The government has agreed that Principal Accounting Officers of the main central government departments should provide a statement of their accountability systems, covering all of the relevant accountability relationships within the department, including relationships with arm’s length bodies and third party delivery partners in an Accounting Officer System Statement. This requirement does not apply to the NAO, but our accountability relationships and processes are set out in full in our Governance Statement and other sections of the Annual Report.
The Department has committed electricity consumers and taxpayers to a high cost and risky deal in a changing energy marketplace. We cannot say the Department has maximised the chances that it will achieve value for money.