19
Accepted
The IPA agreed that creating a culture of transparency and openness are the foundations of...
Conclusion
The IPA agreed that creating a culture of transparency and openness are the foundations of effective project delivery. It promotes these values within its principles of project success, namely “Prioritise people and behaviour” and “Tell it like it is”.35 It used Crossrail as an example, where people at the working level understood the lack of progress with systems integration, but this information did not get passed upwards in the organisation. Creating trust within organisations requires leadership; leaders must be willing to hear bad news in order to instil the right behaviours in their teams.36
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the implicit recommendation for transparency, outlining the IPA's Transparency Policy, significant improvements to the annual GMPP report (reducing data lag and publishing benefits data), and the upcoming publication of summary business cases and close-out reports for GMPP projects.
Government Response
Accepted
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.
Source
Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Report
Thirty-Ninth Report - Lessons from major projects and programmes
29 Jan 2021
HC 694
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age
5.5 yrs
Report published
29 Jan 2021