Review of a sample of the data systems underpinning the input and impact indicators in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Business Plan, Common Areas of Spend and wider management information.
This review was carried out on the 2012-15 Business Plan. Revised Business Plans were issued in June 2013.
Farm oversight activity does not deliver value for money for the taxpayer and continues to burden compliant farmers unnecessarily.
Review of a sample of the data systems underpinning the input and impact indicators in the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Business Plan, Common Areas of Spend and wider management information.
This briefing responds to a request from the Environmental Audit Committee to review sustainability within the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
The level of penalties imposed by the EC has gone down in 2012-13 to £20 million but this is largely caused by administrative delay in the Commission rather than improved compliance by Defra.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion on the 2011-12 accounts of the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency.
Investment of £110bn in electricity infrastructure is needed by 2020 to meet increase in demand, to provide back-up capacity, and because of scheduled closure of one fifth of existing capacity.
This competition was launched in 2007 with insufficient planning and recognition of the commercial risks and cancelled four years later. With commercial scale carbon capture and storage technology still to be developed, DECC must learn from the failure of this project.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has undertaken an efficiency review of the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) delivery of meat hygiene official controls.
Review of a sample of the data systems underpinning the input and impact indicators in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Business Plan, Common Areas of Spend and wider management information.
This briefing on Ofgem, a non-ministerial government department, is similar to the briefings we are producing on the 15 major government departments. It is produced primarily as a briefing for the Environment and Climate Change Committee, and is based on Ofgem’s annual report and accounts and our own work relevant to Ofgem.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, has published his audit opinion on the 2011-12 accounts of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Payments Agency.
Defra, the Rural Payments Agency and Government Digital Service have not worked together effectively to deliver the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme.
Using competition to award companies licences to transmit electricity from offshore wind farms has benefits but consumers might end up bearing the cost of inflation.
This Departmental Overview is one of 15 we are producing covering our work on each major government department. It summarises our work on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs during 2011-12.
The Government awarded, without competition, £16.6 billion worth of early contracts to eight renewable generation projects at risk of investment delay.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a planned project to build a large sewer running under the River Thames. It is the Government’s preferred solution to the problem of spills from London’s sewers into the tidal part of the Thames. In response to correspondence, we explain the roles of the different parties, identify potential risks to value for money and set out what we expect good project management to look like. To avoid influencing the outcome of ongoing competitions for the construction and financing of the project, we do not evaluate the value for money of the project and the issues raised do not imply any audit judgement about its performance.
The number of heat pump installations by December 2023 was less than half of planned projections; uncertainty regarding the role of hydrogen in home heating is hampering investment and effective planning.
Large-scale infrastructure spending by the private sector over ten years or more will increase consumer utility bills but government and regulators do not know by how much or whether the bills will be affordable.
All three projects examined by the NAO have experienced significant delays stemming from a range of problems.