Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), has reported to Parliament on the outcome of financial audit work undertaken by the NAO in central government over the past year. Today’s report examines the progress made by government departments in a number of important areas. In 2001/02 resource accounts became the sole mechanism […]
Head of the National Audit Office, Sir John Bourn, reported today that the Government had made good progress in the development of policy for older people, but should build on this, in particular, by publishing an overall strategy to co-ordinate work across departments, and by ensuring better feedback to older people on how services are […]
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn has published a report following his examination of each of the twenty three summarised accounts for the NHS in England. Today’s report draws attention to a number of issues, including the NHS’s overall financial performance, developments in accounting and internal control, fraud, and clinical negligence liabilities. […]
The Department for Work and Pensions have taken reasonable and appropriate action to deal with the Inherited SERPS problem and have made considerable progress in improving their organisation and systems for dealing with the public, according to a report presented to Parliament today by Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office. The provision […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today on the transfer of social housing from local authorities to registered social landlords (RSLs). His report highlights improvements in the condition of transferred housing and the quality of services to tenants. The report also identifies ways in which the transfer programme could […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office reported to Parliament today that although the Department of Trade and Industry is responsible for the regulation of weights and measures, it needs better information on the level of protection which is being afforded to consumers. The effect of inaccurate weights and measures being used for […]
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has improved its protection of consumers following a November 2000 report by the Committee of Public Accounts, Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said today. He also stated that recent changes to legislation should strengthen its work further. But the OFT will need to be vigorous […]
In recent years the Highways Agency has improved the condition of England’s motorway and trunk roads network and has also strengthened the management and delivery of its maintenance programme. But, according to a National Audit Office report, there is scope for the Agency to make further improvements in measuring the condition of the network, targeting […]
The Inland Revenue face real threats of fraud and continued efforts are required to tackle the problem, according to a National Audit Office report to Parliament published today. It is important that the Revenue have a clear view of the resources and approaches they are going to use to tackle those risks. They should increase […]
More needs to be done to encourage older people – an increasingly large proportion of the population – to use government e-services if those services are to provide value for money, according to the National Audit Office. The government set itself a target that everyone who wants access to the internet has it by the […]
The Department for Work and Pensions have made good progress in tackling benefit fraud and estimating the level of fraud and error in key benefits, according to the National Audit Office. By March 2002 the Department had cut the estimated level of fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance by 24 per cent […]
Good progress is being made by the Department of Health and other health and social care bodies in ensuring that older people who have finished treatment in acute hospitals are discharged promptly. According to the National Audit Office, however, more needs to be done to meet the Government’s target to end widespread delays in patient […]
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn has qualified his audit opinion on the Department for Work and Pensions’ Resource Accounts for 2001-2002 because of significant levels of estimated fraud and error in welfare benefits. As much as £3 billion may have been lost from benefit payments in 2001-2002, according to the Department’s […]
Most construction work under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is being delivered on time and at the cost expected by the public sector. Central government has generally obtained a much higher degree of price certainty and timely delivery of good quality built assets, compared to previous conventional government building projects, Sir John Bourn, Head of […]
In the context of more than 1 billion people lacking access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lacking basic sanitation facilities, the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) projects to improve access to water and sanitation in developing countries have been largely successful, the National Audit Office reports today. Between 1997 and 2002 DFID […]
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn today reported to Parliament that fraudulent and other irregular payments made under the Individual Learning Accounts (ILA) scheme had been estimated as likely to total some £97 million. As a result he has qualified his audit opinion on the Department for Education and Skill’s Resource Account […]
A national standard IT system for magistrates’ courts has been under development for over ten years but is still not complete, Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today. The cost of the project has increased substantially since a PFI deal was signed in 1998. IT systems in magistrates’ courts […]
The successful commercialisation of intellectual property in agricultural research requires identifying the best opportunities for commercial exploitation of publicly financed research; obtaining further funds to develop and protect ideas; and managing risks when making deals and establishing spin-out companies. These points are brought out in a National Audit Office report today on the performance of […]
The Medicines Control Agency (MCA) has a good track record, nationally and internationally, in protecting public health and in ensuring that medicines are in general safe, of good quality and effective if used properly. But, according to a National Audit Office report, it needs to do more to improve the quality of information and advice […]