The National Audit Office has today called for a step change improvement in how central government departments work with each other and with regional and local bodies, if the Government’s ambitious aspirations for the Thames Gateway region are to be realised. The Government has set out its vision to make the Thames Gateway, the area […]
The government’s reform programme to improve attainment and participation in education and training for 14 to 19 year olds has wide support at local level, including for the new Diplomas, which seek to blend general education with applied learning. The National Audit Office has today reported that the reform programme has met its key milestones […]
The pathfinders housing market renewal programme has been running for five years and the government has commited £2.2 billion to it up to 2011. Low demand for housing is now less severe in pathfinder areas and the gap between these areas and surrounding regions has started to close. However, it is not possible to identify […]
As part of our work to evaluate how well the UK Government is tackling the renewal of the Thames Gateway we explored how seven European cities or regions are tackling ambitious regeneration and bringing sustainable growth and renewal to local communities. We published our research as a companion piece to the Thames Gateway report.
Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) are often not used in the right way, according to a report published today by the National Audit Office. The report finds that the purpose of RIAs is not always understood, there is a lack of clarity in the presentation of the analysis and persistent weaknesses in the assessments. As a […]
The majority of government departments and agencies are failing to meet targets to make their new buildings and major refurbishments sustainable, according to a report published today by the National Audit Office. As a result, value for money may be lost from the £3billion which departments and agencies spend each year on this activity. A […]
Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that single Community Programme funding is leading to greater involvement of deprived communities in influencing local decisions but more needs to be done to reach all sectors and groups. Thanks to simple and straightforward grant application procedures the Programme has been successful […]
The urgent need for change in how government departments and agencies procure and manage new construction projects, currently worth some £7.5 billion a year, is highlighted today in a National Audit Office report. It concludes that there is now no excuse for government clients and the industry to fail to take advantage of readily available […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that he had identified five critical issues which departments must pay careful attention to if the extra £61 billion spent on improving public services over the next three years is to have its full impact. It is too early to tell whether […]
Presenting the report to Parliament Sir John Bourn, the head of the NAO, recognised the effort and resources being put into boosting central government presence on-line and in promoting e-government among local authorities. The Office of the e-Envoy has given a clear cultural lead from the centre to departments developing e-business initiatives. But to maximise […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that the Invest to Save (ISB) programme has fostered better working together by organisations, departments, agencies and local authorities. But there is less evidence of what the programme has achieved in terms of tangible outputs. In its study of the Invest to Save Budget, […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported the results of his examination of HM Customs and Excise’s systems for the assessment, collection and allocation of tax revenue during the year ending 31 March 2002. Customs collected £150 billion (gross) in revenue in 2001-2002. In April 2001 the Department reorganised along functional […]
The development of the national Air Quality Strategy provides a good example of modern policy-making practices, and further improvements can be made, according to a National Audit Office report. The NAO used the development of the second Air Quality Strategy (published in January 2000) to examine the policy development processes of the former Department of […]
Sir John Bourn, the Head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that Exercise “Saif Sareea” II, held in Oman in 2001, successfully demonstrated that the United Kingdom is capable of mounting a balanced, coherent force over a long distance. Among the United Kingdom’s allies, only the United States has shown that it could […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that, since the 1995 drought, leakage in England and Wales has been reduced by some 1.8 million cubic metres a day, equivalent to the amount of water used daily by more than 12 million people. The National Audit Office examined how the Office […]
Head of the National Audit Office, Sir John Bourn, reported today that, in recognising the good progress made by the Department for Work and Pensions and other public bodies working with pensioners in encouraging benefit take up, more could be done. Although two million pensioners live in low-income households, many tens of thousand miss out […]
Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office, reported to the Scottish Parliament today that there is scope to improve the responsiveness of accident and emergency ambulance services in Scotland and the impact they have on the healthcare of patients. The Scottish Ambulance Service are responsible for ambulance services across Scotland. Their emergency […]