Good progress has been made by the Department of Health and NHS England in setting up a programme to close hospital beds for people with a learning disability, but the programme is not yet on track to achieve value for money. The report examines how the NHS in England and local authorities seek to improve the lives of the 129,000 people aged 18 to 64 who use local authority learning disability support services.
This report examines the evidence base supporting the decision to proceed with the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a tunnel running 25 kilometres from Acton to Abbey Mills, as well as progress achieved to date.
The Osborn ruling in October 2013 had an immediate impact on the demand for oral hearings conducted by the Parole Board.
The Department must make the best use of the capital funding it has available by continuing to increase the use of data to inform its funding decisions and by creating places where it can demonstrate that they will have the greatest impact.
In response to correspondence from Helen Goodman MP on behalf of 11 other MPs the NAO conducted an investigation into the Department for Communities and Local Government’s approach to the allocation of transition grant and rural service delivery grant (rural grant) for 2016-17.
The NAO has conducted an investigation into DFID’s approach to tackling fraud, following an increase in the potential risks after the government committed to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid.
The Better Care Fund has not achieved the expected value for money, in terms of savings, outcomes for patients or hospital activity.
The BBC has improved the value for money of its activity, but there is scope to make improvements, particularly on licence fee evasion and the incomplete transition programme.
This looks at the chain of events which led to the government paying £711m in compensation to 34,000 pensioners who retired from the Police and Firefighters’ Pension Schemes between 2001 and 2006 without receiving their full pension entitlement. Due to the extent of the legal process in the case, some police and firefighters were retired for over 15 years before they received their full pension entitlement from government.
The risks to the affordability of the Ministry of Defence Equipment Plan are greater than at any point since reporting began in 2012.
Demand for ambulance services continues to grow rapidly, but services are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with rising demand.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has not achieved value for money for its £100 million spend on the second competition for government financial support for carbon capture storage.
The need for housing in England has in recent years grown faster than its supply, and housebuilding needs to increase across the country.
HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) contract with Synnex-Concentrix UK Ltd was terminated in November 2016. The contract was designed to add capacity to HMRC’s programme of interventions to prevent or detect error and fraud in personal tax credits awards. HMRC estimated that the contract would save £1 billion over its three year life time and an estimated £193 million, excluding Concentrix’s costs, had been saved by the time of contract termination.
Having shown that the concept of a national citizen service has something to offer young people, to demonstrate value for money the OCS and the Trust now need to show they can grow NCS as intended and run it at a more affordable cost to the taxpayer.
Challenging objectives for improving access to general practice have been set by the Department and NHS England, but a more coordinated approach and stronger incentives are needed.
By reducing the number of its offices and moving to a regional centre model HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) hopes to significantly reduce its running costs and modernise the way it works. HMRC’s original plan has proved unrealistic and is now reconsidering the scope and timing of the programme. Any changes will need to be carefully managed to avoid diminishing the long term value of the strategy.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs continues to make progress in ensuring that income tax levied under the Scottish rate will be assessed and collected properly, but still faces significant challenges to ensure that all Scottish taxpayers are correctly identified
The report examines the system protecting consumers from scams, unfair trading, and unsafe goods. BEIS has made progress since our 2011 review, but needs to do more, particularly in the context of the growth of e-commerce.
The government’s approach to managing the risks to schools’ financial sustainability cannot be judged to be effective or providing value for money until more progress is made.