Entitlement to free early education and childcare
Published on: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
Search results for 'Benefits'
Showing 801 - 820 of 988 results
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Update on PFI debt refinancing and the PFI equity market
Published on:An update report by the NAO identifies that the government has secured gains of £137 million from PFI debt refinancings under new arrangements introduced by the Treasury in 2002. These new arrangements followed previous reports by the NAO and the Public Accounts Committee that highlighted the opportunities for the private sector to benefit from refinancing […]
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NAO briefing: Appraisal and sustainable development
Published on:This briefing was prepared for the Environmental Audit Committee. It gives a high-level landscape overview of options appraisal processes across government, with a focus on incorporating environmental and social factors.
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Contracted-out health and disability assessments
Published on:The Department for Work and Pensions has not yet achieved value for money in managing contracted-out health and disability assessments.
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Employers’ perspectives on improving skills for employment
Published on:More employers in England need to be persuaded of the value to their businesses of employment-related education and skills training, according to the National Audit Office. Today’s report to Parliament recommends that the ways in which employers get advice and information be simplified; that the emphasis should be on flexible and affordable training that employers […]
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The budget for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Published on:The process for setting the London 2012 Games budget has been thorough, the National Audit Office says today, but the level of public funding has increased greatly, and significant areas of uncertainty remain including the finalisation of the design of venues and the intended wider benefits. These are the main findings in a new report […]
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Gaining and retaining a job: the Department for Work and Pensions’ support for disabled people
Published on:Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that the Department for Work and Pensions provides an effective range of support that helps thousands of disabled people find employment each year. However more needs to be done to increase the number of people assisted into work and to help many of those […]
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Tackling pensioner poverty: Encouraging take-up of entitlements
Published on:Head of the National Audit Office, Sir John Bourn, reported today that, in recognising the good progress made by the Department for Work and Pensions and other public bodies working with pensioners in encouraging benefit take up, more could be done. Although two million pensioners live in low-income households, many tens of thousand miss out […]
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Improving quality and safety – Progress in implementing clinical governance in primary care: Lessons for the new Primary Care Trusts
Published on:The National Audit Office has urged the NHS to ensure that a focus on quality and safety is at the top of the agenda in primary care. In a report out today, the NAO says that almost all primary care trusts (PCTS) have clinical governance structures and processes in place that should assure quality and […]
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The Termination of the PFI Contract for the National Physical Laboratory
Published on:The Department for Trade and Industry successfully transferred risk in the PFI contract to build and manage new facilities for the National Physical Laboratory and protected the taxpayer from bearing the majority of the costs of the project’s problems. Delays during the construction of the new facilities meant that the DTI did not secure the […]
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Department of Trade and Industry: The United Kingdom’s Civil Space Activities
Published on:Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that the Government’s investment in space, coordinated by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) Partnership, has a number of strengths, including lean, user-focused programmes built up from wide consultation, many of which have produced important scientific and commercial benefits. There is scope, however, to […]
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Partnering for success: Preparing to deliver the 14-19 education reforms in England
Published on:The government’s reform programme to improve attainment and participation in education and training for 14 to 19 year olds has wide support at local level, including for the new Diplomas, which seek to blend general education with applied learning. The National Audit Office has today reported that the reform programme has met its key milestones […]
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Directory Enquiries – From 192 to 118
Published on:Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that not all consumers have yet benefited from the move from 192 to 118 directory enquiry numbers, but that the market was still evolving. Specifically, the average residential consumer is paying more for a directory enquiries service with no obvious improvement in quality. […]
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Improving Public Services through Better Construction
Published on:Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today on the progress that departments and their agencies have made to their construction delivery performance since his 2001 report “Modernising Construction”. He concluded that there had been a considerable improvement in completing projects to time and cost and that real savings were being delivered, […]
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The privatisation of QinetiQ
Published on:The Ministry of Defence’s privatisation of the defence technology business QinetiQ safeguarded the viability of a business of national strategic importance and generated significant proceeds for the taxpayer. However, the NAO believes the taxpayer could have received more money from the deal. Risks remain which the MoD must manage carefully if long term value for […]
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The Refinancing of the Norfolk and Norwich PFI Hospital: How the deal can be viewed in the light of the refinancing
Published on:Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, today reported that, following improvements in PFI financing terms, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust has shared in the gains from a refinancing of its early PFI hospital contract, but it continues to pay a premium in respect of the financing costs compared to current deals. […]
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Investigation into overseas sellers failing to charge VAT on online sales
Published on:The NAO have investigated concerns that online sellers outside the EU are avoiding charging VAT.
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Legal aid and mediation for people involved in family breakdown
Published on:Too many family breakdown cases are going to court rather than being settled through mediation, the National Audit Office has today reported. Family breakdown cases which are resolved through professional mediation are cheaper and quicker to settle. And academic research shows that they secure better outcomes, particularly for children, as they are less acrimonious. However, […]
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Department for Work and Pensions Resource Account 2001-02
Published on: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 […]
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Department of Social Security Resource Accounts 2000-2001
Published on:There has been a reduction in the estimated loss of social security benefit through fraud and error compared to previous years, according to a National Audit Office report published today. However, the total amount of Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance overpaid in 2000-2001, over £1 billion, is still substantial. As a result, head of the […]