This publication outlines some of the challenges in estimating and managing costs that we have observed in our work on major projects. It offers Accounting Officers and senior decision makers some ground rules and thoughts on factors to consider when challenging costs.
Transformation programmes can be highly complicated and risky. This guidance assists those overseeing them by setting out questions committees should ask during set-up, delivery and live-running phases.
The Building Public Trust Awards recognise outstanding corporate reporting that builds trust and transparency. This interactive document illustrates a range of good practice examples across annual reports in both the public and private sector.
This paper sets out how we used Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) to explore measures of A&E departments’ performance and, in particular, their association with measures of bed pressure.
This paper sets out how we created the interactive data visualisation of our jobcentre journey time model.
Establishing solid foundations early in the contract and commercial relationship lifecycle is critical for contracts to work. But this process starts long before contracts are signed. Two recent NAO reports provide insights into the importance of getting both the procurement strategy and process right. Experience has shown that not doing so can result in millions […]
Government investment in science requires strategic vision and clear information so that it can ensure the UK is investing in the right areas. Our report is accompanied by an Evaluative Framework to guide effective cross-government coordination.
This paper sets out how we used NHS administrative data to compare the characteristics of A&E attendances by mental health service users to those of the rest of the population.
The NAO is publishing a suite of short guides for the new Parliament, one for each government department and a selection of cross-government issues, to assist House of Commons select committees and members of Parliament.
The Audit Committee checklist is based on the Treasury’s Audit Committee Handbook and on feedback from staff and Audit Committees. Audit Committees can assess their performance against best practice using the checklist.
High profile incidents remind individuals and organisations just how important it is to manage potential conflicts of interest. In March 2017, the Court of the Bank of England commissioned a review of the institution’s approach to managing conflicts of interest. The review was prompted by the resignation of Charlotte Hogg who had been Deputy Governor […]
With charities such as museums and galleries relying increasingly on donations to supplement public grant funding, this report summarises the issues faced and best-practice management of the risks associated with donations as a source of income.
The Building Public Trust Awards recognise outstanding corporate reporting that builds trust and transparency. This interactive document illustrates a range of good practice examples in public sector reports.
This paper sets out how we used a technique called “webscraping” to harvest and analyse textual content from the government’s GOV.UK website.
This paper sets out how we used existing data to estimate the impact of our value for money work on stroke care.
This paper sets out how we used instrumental variables to estimate the impact of benefit sanctions on the employment outcomes of sanctioned individuals in the Work Programme – a large welfare-to-work programme for the long-term unemployed.
The framework is a good practice guide for managing a broad range of contracts. It is particularly relevant for contracts where services are delivered over a long period of time (five years plus) where customers need to ensure that service levels and value for money are maintained over the duration of the contract.
The Department for Work & Pensions is not doing enough to find out how sanctions affect people on benefits.
This toolkit is designed to guide those overseeing public service markets or assessing the effectiveness of these markets in terms of value for money and user outcomes. It helps government address a set of new challenges around its use of markets to deliver public services, including oversight, consumer protection, regulation and helping to achieve effective competition and innovative delivery.
This interactive publication draws on our audits of government contracts and engagement with government to provide practitioners with insights on the new, emerging higher standard for government contracting.