The Department for Transport agreed to make a £30m grant towards construction of the Garden Bridge despite its concerns over value for money. The NAO’s review does not assess the value for money of the project as a whole.
The NAO has today published a review of three formula-based grants from central government to fund local public services.
This new report responds to a request from the Environmental Audit Committee to examine local government and net zero.
Overall spending on discretionary local welfare support by central and local government has reduced since April 2013. The consequences of this gap in provision are not understood.
A series of lessons and recommendations for tackling fraud and protecting propriety when spending public money during a national emergency.
The NAO looked at issues originally identified in an earlier report.
There are more than 1000 tax reliefs in the UK tax system. The NAO intends to carry out future work evaluating how they are developed and implemented.
This page is part of our decision support tool. The application process for funding, whether via grant, grant-in-aid or procurement, is an important tool in providing a‘level playing field’ for TSOs. Small TSOs in particular may be deterred by lengthy or excessively complex processes. Bearing in mind the principle of proportionality, you should consider: the […]
The DfT and Transport for London have done well to protect taxpayers’ interests in Crossrail but risks remain including delivery of the trains.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion on the Arts Council England’s 2010-11 Grant-in-Aid financial statements and the Lottery financial statements.
This page is part of our decision support tool. Which channels can you use? You must choose one of the following three funding channels for the programme: [Footnote 1] Procurement: used to acquire goods, works or services in line with the government’s policy of value for money – “the optimum combination of whole-life cost and […]
This report examines whether the government secured financial sustainability across the local authority sector during COVID-19.
This report establishes the facts on how the government has provided accommodation for rough sleepers during COVID-19.
The C&AG has qualified his audit opinion on the 2011-12 financial statements of the Young People’s Learning Agency and its sponsor department, the Department for Education.
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. If you have decided to use grant as the basis for a financial relationship, you then have the further option of choosing to use a particular type of grant, known as ‘grant-in-aid’ (in central government) or ‘strategic grant’ (especially in local government and the NHS). The key […]
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. Introduction A charity for blind people approaches a Primary Care Trust (PCT) with a proposal for a health support service in the area. Under this, staff and volunteers of the charity would greet blind people at NHS establishments and welcome them and show them around safely. For […]
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. Within a public sector organisation, commissioning and establishing good financial relationships with third sector organisations (TSOs) involves: people at different levels – from senior officials, acting as Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) of a programme, to staff responsible for programme implementation; and people with different functions – while […]
With the number of further education (FE) colleges in financial difficulty expected to rise rapidly, there are fundamental structural problems which might require decisions at a regional or sector-wide level.
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. Introduction Ministers ask a central government department to establish a scheme to improve safety on the road for cyclists. A policy manager is put in charge of this. She holds a meeting with internal stakeholders, including those responsible for service delivery, finance and legal advice. From this […]
This page is part of our decision support tool. Generic funding model 1: ‘straightforward procurement’ Key features Channel Procurement Intermediaries No Degree of competition Open Duration of contract Three years Payment formula Linked to outputs/outcomes Mainly in arrears Monitoring and evaluation Focus on outputs/outcomes Inspection (risk-based) Illustrative scenario Strategic decisions The objectives of your programme […]