The Department’s performance reporting in its annual report and accounts does not allow Parliament and the public to monitor progress towards its strategic priorities. The Department’s activities are wide-ranging, and it told us it has an ever-growing set of delivery obligations. It believes its complexity, and broad and diverse remit make it challenging to set out its performance. However, complexity is not a reason to avoid transparency reporting obligations. Departments had outcome delivery plans (ODPs) for 2021–22 which set out priorities and associated metrics, and HM Treasury expects departments to report publicly on the delivery of their ODPs in their annual reports and accounts. The Department told us that it regularly reports its ODP performance metrics internally within government; however, the Department in its Annual Report and Accounts presented outcome metrics that appeared, in some cases, disconnected from the accompanying narrative. This not only diminishes the usefulness to the reader in assessing progress towards Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Annual Report and Accounts 2021–22 7 achieving outcomes, it also risks giving the impression that the Department is including such metrics to meet minimum compliance requirements rather than to aid understanding or support transparency and accountability. Recommendation 4: In its Treasury Minute response, The Department, should set out what steps it has taken to ensure that performance reporting in its 2022–23 annual report and accounts will clearly and transparently document its progress against its strategic priorities.