In its progress report on the Olympic and Paralympic Games the National Audit Office has found that with four years to go until the start of the Games, the preparations have progressed in important ways. In particular, there has been good progress in preparing the Olympic Park site and construction activities are broadly on track. […]
The exact scale of fraud within government is unknown. The quality and completeness of fraud data is often variable.
Government-led initiatives to help unemployed people find work are having a real impact. Programmes such as the New Deal have helped reduce the number of people on benefit, and the average length of claims. However, too many people still do not stay in work once they have found it and more now needs to be […]
Plans to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of services such as human resources, payroll and finance could cost the Department for Transport £81 million (by March 2015) rather than saving £57 million as originally expected. There will need to be substantial improvements in the shared service centre’s productivity if the Department’s original targets are to […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, has today qualified his opinion on the Department for Work and Pensions accounts for the eighteenth consecutive year. This is because an estimated £2.5 billion has been lost to fraud and error in benefit payments, and because of uncertainties over the debts created by customers being […]
Central government could improve its day to day cash management and reduce the amount of interest it pays on debt if its departments and their sponsored bodies held less money in commercial bank accounts. Today’s report to Parliament by the National Audit Office recommends that these organisations instead use the Exchequer as their main banking […]
A National Audit Office report has found that government has strengthened its drive to purchase more environmentally sustainable goods and services. In 2005 the government set a target to be recognised by 2009 as one of the leaders in the EU in sustainable procurement. However a number of departments are not yet on course to […]
The NAO has published its investigation into misuse of the Flexible Support Fund in Plaistow jobcentre. The report looks at how the Department for Work & Pensions responded to allegations of misuse at the jobcentre.
Delivering the National Programme for IT in the NHS is proving to be an enormous challenge. All elements of the Programme are advancing and some are complete, but the original timescales for the electronic Care Records Service, one of the central elements of the Programme, turned out to be unachievable, raised unrealistic expectations and put […]
The Better Care Fund has not achieved the expected value for money, in terms of savings, outcomes for patients or hospital activity.
It is not possible to show that the Crown Commercial Service has achieved more than departments would otherwise have achieved by buying common goods and services themselves.
The National Audit Office has reported today that Government departments and local health and social care organisations do not have enough information on numbers of adults with autism. They also lack a full understanding and awareness of the condition, limiting their ability to plan and deliver services effectively. Autism, which includes Asperger syndrome, is a […]
The Prison Service has made significant progress in the way it manages its buying of goods and services such as food, clothing and utilities, the National Audit Office has today reported. In 2003 the National Audit Office found that the Prison Service’s procurement function was “fragmented and costly to deliver”. Since this report, the Prison […]
Government faces increasing pressure to do more with fewer financial resources and, with challenges such as climate change and an ageing population, will require innovation in public services. Since 2006, when the National Audit Office last reported to Parliament on innovation in central government, departments have started to implement some of the report’s recommendations and […]
The NAO has published the findings from its investigation into members’ experience of civil service pension administration.
The National Audit Office reported today that the effective delivery of community order sentences could be improved to secure the full benefits of the scheme by the National Probation Service. Not all components of community orders are used in all probation areas. In addition, there is incomplete data on the cost of orders and the […]
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 […]
The newly-created Competition and Markets Authority has made significant progress in improving how the UK’s competition regime works, and it is now more coherent than before. Business awareness of competition law, however, is low and while it has improved the robustness of its enforcement casework, the regime has so far not produced a substantial flow of enforcement decisions or fines.
Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs), used to assess the need for, and potential impact of, new regulations, have not always been used effectively, according to a report published today by the National Audit Office. The report finds that RIAs often failed to consider fully the cost and benefit of regulation, and did not take account of […]
Government has gaps in its capability and must do more to develop the skills needed. It is making plans, but the scale of the challenge means greater urgency is needed.