HM Treasury has taken initial steps to evaluate what works but now needs to fully embed this to improve cross-government working. In 2021, the Government set up a joint Evaluation Task Force to support evaluation of policies and programmes across government. HM Treasury made greater use of its powers, requiring departments to include plans for evaluations for it to approve funding at the 2020 Spending Review. More recently, the Task Force has set up an evaluation registry which shows what government has already done in a policy area and what others are planning so that examples of good practice can be better shared. Review of this will become mandatory prior to business case approval from next year. All business cases should include plans for monitoring and evaluation. However, departmental approvals processes vary in terms how much they take these plans into account as part of their approval decision. Recommendation 4: HM Treasury should use its influence to improve cross- government working, for example by only approving business cases that clearly demonstrate a link to the relevant cross-cutting aim they support, appropriate plans for evaluation, and detail on what cross-government outcomes and outputs should be delivered.