Probation services have been restructured on time and within cost targets during a period of major change but operational problems and risks to further service transformation need to be resolved if re-offending levels are to reduce.
Against a backdrop of increasing pressure on NHS finances, NHS England has not controlled the rising cost of specialised services.
The welfare cap is encouraging a greater understanding of spending on some benefits and tax credits across government, but it is important that processes for managing the cap are reliable.
The Department of Health and NHS England are making progress but much remains to be done to improve access to mental health services.
Devolution deals to devolve power from central government to local areas in England offer opportunities to stimulate economic growth and reform public services for local users, but the arrangements are untested and government could do more to provide confidence that these deals will achieve the benefits intended
The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Green Deal design not only failed to deliver any meaningful benefit, it increased suppliers’ costs – and therefore energy bills – in meeting their obligations through the ECO scheme.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Green Deal design not only failed to deliver any meaningful benefit, it increased suppliers’ costs – and therefore energy bills – in meeting their obligations through the ECO scheme.
The role and remit of Local Enterprise Partnerships has grown since 2010, but the approach taken by DCLG to overseeing Growth Deals risks future value for money.
There has been a greater focus on enforcing criminal confiscation orders, but there remain fundamental weaknesses in the system.
The Department for Business, Skills and Innovation has not used good quality information to decide which science capital projects to invest in to optimise scientific and economic benefits.
If the government is serious about increasing its use of small and medium – sized enterprises (SMEs), it will need to focus on those areas where SMEs can deliver real benefits.
The Department of Health now needs to gain a better understanding of the different ways to commission personalised services for users, and how these lead to improvements in user outcomes.
Significant progress has been made in providing 15 hours of free childcare to parents of 3- and 4-year olds, but the Department of Education has not yet achieved full value for money
Despite some improvements in the management of court cases, around two-thirds of criminal trials do not proceed as planned on the day they are originally scheduled. Delays and aborted hearings create extra work, waste scarce resources and undermine confidence in the justice system.
The Financial Conduct Authority cannot know whether its activities are reducing the overall scale of financial services mis-selling to consumers. The most prominent example of mis-selling is Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). Between April 2011 and November 2015, firms paid out £22.2 billion in compensation to more than 12 million customers who had bought PPI.
The incentives on government Accounting Officers to prioritise value for money are weak compared to those associated with the day-to-day job of satisfying Ministers.
The exact scale of fraud within government is unknown. The quality and completeness of fraud data is often variable.
This briefing on financial management of the EU budget has been prepared for the UK Committee of Public Accounts, drawing exclusively from published material.
The NAO has published the findings from its investigation into members’ experience of civil service pension administration.
The government needs to do more to demonstrate how new arrangements for training new teachers are improving the quality of teaching in classrooms.