18 Accepted

This Committee has examined many government programmes where problems had arisen and were known by...

Conclusion
This Committee has examined many government programmes where problems had arisen and were known by those within the programme for some time, but the issues only became public knowledge much later. For example, the Committee was kept in the dark for over a year before being told about the difficulties on the High Speed Two programme, and the programme now reports half-yearly as a result of our work.33 Nonetheless it remains challenging to hold government to account for its delivery of programmes - the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report notes that the pressures organisations are under can make them defensive about a programme or allow a “good news culture” to develop.34
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and is taking specific steps to improve transparency, including refreshing the IPA's annual report to halve data lag time, publishing aggregate project benefits data, and ensuring major projects publish summary business cases and close-out reports from April 2021.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2021 2.2 The IPA recognises that, to enable effective parliamentary scrutiny, the right type and amount of information about major projects needs to be made available in a timely fashion and appropriate format. This needs to be done with sensitivity to commercial, and where relevant national security, considerations. 2.3 The IPA’s Transparency Policy includes a presumption in favour of the publication of major project data. Each piece of data or information is assessed on a project-by-project basis, and any exemption made is consistent with the Freedom of Information Act and the government’s approach to the public interest test. 2.4 The IPA publishes an annual report of projects on the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) each July. This report includes an analysis of trends across the whole portfolio and insights on each individual project or programme. As part of a comprehensive refresh of the structure and content of the annual report - aimed at addressing recommendations made by the Committee in June 2020 - the IPA has taken significant steps to improve data collection and analysis processes. As a result, the data in this year’s report will be current as of March 2021, instead of September 2020, halving the lag time from nine months last year to four this year. As part of this refresh, the IPA will also publish aggregate GMPP projects benefits data. 2.5 As the Committee acknowledges, from April 2021 projects on the GMPP will begin publishing summary business cases following final approval, a close-out report following completion and other long-term evaluations.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 5.5 yrs
Report published 29 Jan 2021