Demonstrating that it has a cost-effective control environment could help the Department move towards an unqualified audit opinion on its accounts.16 We made clear our desire to be involved in conversations with the Department and the C&AG about how the Department might get to a position where the long-standing qualification could be lifted. The Department agreed that it was keen for these conversations to take place, and acknowledged that Parliament would want to have confidence that it was driving down fraud and error relentlessly.17 The scale of official error