Local public bodies (local authorities, including police and crime commissioners and fire and rescue authorities, and local NHS bodies such as Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS trusts and Foundation Trusts) are finding it increasingly difficult to balance the delivery of good quality services and maintaining a sound financial position. The NAO’s recent reports on Financial sustainability … Read more
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were created following the Health and Social Care Act in 2012, and replaced Primary Care Trusts on 1 April 2013. They are clinically-led statutory NHS bodies responsible for the planning and commissioning of health care services for their local area. The Comptroller and Auditor General has started a review of the … Read more
The Royal Assent of the Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016 (the Act) took place in May 2016. The Act provides for the National Audit Office (NAO) to conduct value for money audit, on the basis of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Bank of England (the Bank) and the NAO. The … Read more
Council governance and accountability arrangements are key in securing value for money locally. However, these arrangements are being tested by the current financial circumstances in the sector. Increasingly difficult decisions need to be made to protect key services and ensure financial sustainability. This includes the design and delivery of large service transformation programmes and the … Read more
Children’s services cost local government in excess of £8 billion every year. For many local authorities these services are a significant portion of their annual budget. The children’s services sector has consistently warned that it is facing a growing crisis of financial and service sustainability, as demand for its services increases and local government funding … Read more
For the first time this year the NAO will be reporting on HMRC’s preparations for the administration of the Welsh rate of income taxes under the Government of Wales Act 2006 in preparation for the devolution of income tax powers to Wales for the 2018-19 tax year. The report will provide an update on the … Read more
In May 2018 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care informed Parliament on an IT failure in the NHS breast screening programme that led to an estimated 450,000 women not receiving their final breast screening appointment. The Comptroller and Auditor General is undertaking an investigation into four adult screening programmes: abdominal aortic aneurysm … Read more
We last reported to Parliament on the apprenticeships programme in September 2016. Since then there have been a number of developments which make revisiting this topic timely, including: a 0.5% levy has been introduced on the payroll of large employers to fund apprenticeships a new Institute for Apprenticeships has been established to ensure quality employer-designed … Read more
The Department for Transport (the department) jointly sponsors, with Transport for London, the Crossrail programme. This will deliver a new railway beneath central London, which will be known as the Elizabeth Line. New rail services will operate on the line between Abbey Wood and Shenfield to the East of London, and Heathrow and Reading in … Read more
Housing is one of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s key objectives. The government has pledged that between 2015 and 2022, they will deliver 1.5 million new homes. In 2017, the Department set out proposals as to how it would ‘fix the broken housing market’ – including through the planning regime – in … Read more
In June 2014, the then Government introduced its Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. These reforms aimed to open up the market to a diverse range of rehabilitation providers from the private and voluntary sectors to promote innovative approaches to reducing re-offending. They also extended statutory rehabilitation for those serving sentences of less than 12 months and introduced … Read more
In November 2015, government announced that it would follow up its previous National Cyber Security Programme with another five-year programme. The latest programme is now halfway through its life and is designed to tackle and mitigate the cyber security threats that the United Kingdom faces. The NAO reported on the previous National Cyber Security Programme … Read more
The Government set itself the goal of seeing 1 million more disabled people in employment by 2027 in its policy paper Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability. This study will examine the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) employment support to people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. In particular it will consider … Read more
In January 2018, our report on sustainability and transformation in the NHS concluded that extra funding it received in 2016-17 was spent on coping with current pressures rather than the transformation required to put the health system on a sustainable footing. We also reported that trusts were still a long way from being able to … Read more
The NHS Constitution sets out the maximum time patients should wait for elective and cancer services, which the Department of Health and Social Care incorporates into the waiting times standards it expects the NHS to meet. Performance against waiting times standards has been deteriorating as demand for services has grown. The standard for elective care … Read more
This study is part of the National Audit Office’s programme of work on services for children, and will focus on whether the Department for Education supports pupils with special educational needs and disabilities effectively. The study will cover all school-aged children needing support for special educational needs and disabilities, both those with an education, health … Read more
The UK spent £14.1 billion on Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2017. This was the fifth consecutive year that the UK has met the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) target to spend 0.7% of gross national income on ODA. Over this period a decreasing proportion of ODA has been spent by the Department … Read more
The Department for Communities and Local Government (now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) introduced the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme in 2013 to boost the supply of new homes and support home ownership. The Ministry expects the scheme to support the sale of up to 360,000 homes by 2021, at an … Read more
The support that government extends to businesses and industries is substantial and complex, including loans, grants, tax reliefs, training and business advice. Delivering this support is spread across central government departments and local bodies. Currently, the European Union provides around £4 billion in funding to some forms of business support. The study will examine whether … Read more