A National Audit Office review of the regime for overseeing markets and enforcing competition law in the UK has found that it is generally effective and well regarded by comparison with international equivalents. However, the NAO has found that the competition system as a whole must still address a number of challenges to function as […]
By being able to switch suppliers, customers have put competitive pressures on telecom, electricity, gas, and postal providers following the removal of pricing controls. Around half of energy and fixed line telecoms customers have switched supplier and 90 per cent of people doing so found it easy. There have been problems, however, particularly for more […]
Government is committed to conducting formal impact assessments of the need for and likely impact of new regulations. A National Audit Office report has found that scrutiny of proposed legislation is strengthening and that the standard is better than it was, but one fifth of assessments still did not include any quantified data to assess […]
The Security Industry Authority, the body which licences security guards, door supervisors and vehicle immobilisers, has secured a high level of compliance by people working in the industry with the requirement to be licensed, the National Audit Office has today reported. As at the end of May 2008, the Authority had issued over 248,000 licences […]
The National Audit Office has warned that the value for money of 43 major government projects worth around £200 billion is at risk because of significant weaknesses in the Government’s commercial skills and expertise. But there is an even greater risk to many other complex projects where skills shortages are not being assessed systematically. The […]
This report examines the government’s progress in managing the border and implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol since the end of the transition period.
This report considers lessons DLUHC has learned from implementing local growth policies, and how it has applied them.
The Department of Trade and Industrys scheme to compensate former UK trawlermen who lost their jobs as a result of settlement of the Cod Wars with Iceland cost some 43 million, 18 million more than initially estimated. Some claims took a long time to process and the NAO could be certain about the accuracy of […]
Since the introduction of a new type of maintenance contract in 2001 by the Highways Agency there have been some improvements in the quality and delivery to budget of maintenance on England’s motorways and trunk roads. However, according to a report by the National Audit Office, costs have risen, with those for routine maintenance increasing […]
This investigation describes the scheme’s purpose and how it functions, performance to date, and how government manages value-for-money risks.
The Government received a good price when selling its interest in British Energy. But it is too early to say whether the sale will enable the Government to achieve its strategic objective of ensuring nuclear operators are able to build and operate new nuclear power stations from the earliest possible date and with no public […]
This report examines how HM Treasury and HMRC manage tax measures that have an impact on the environment.
In March 2007 we were invited by the House of Lords Select Committee on Regulators to review the way that impact assessment is performed by five regulators: Ofcom; Ofgem; Ofwat; Postcomm; and the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
The NAO has found that departments are committed to identifying possible reductions and are taking a pragmatic approach to identifying measures to reduce burdens. The departments evaluated in the NAO study are seeking to reduce quantified administrative burdens, but also deliver wider improvements in the regulatory environment by tackling aspects of regulation that businesses find […]
The National Audit Office has been unable to conclude that the Ministry of Defence has achieved value for money from the procurement phase of its £10.5 billion private finance deal for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA), according to a report released today. Despite managing the later stages of the procurement well, the MOD’s ability […]
This paper has been prepared for the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee to support their inquiry on Private Finance.