Eighteenth Report - Government’s delivery through arm’s-length bodies

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 181 24 September 2021

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 20 items (9 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 16 of 20 classified)

Accepted 15

Not Addressed 1

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighteenth report from Session 2021-22 · published 14 Dec 2021

Read the government response ↗ Response on the tracker

Recommendations & Conclusions

15 results

2 Recommendation Accepted

Cabinet Office and HM Treasury’s review and challenge of business cases is not sufficiently robust.

Recommendation

Cabinet Office and HM Treasury’s review and challenge of business cases is not sufficiently robust. Of the 24 business cases submitted and approved between 2016 and 2020, not one met all the requirements set out by the Cabinet Office in … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the recommendation, agreeing to continue requiring robust business cases for new ALBs and to develop an updated internal business case checklist by Spring 2022 to ensure requirements are met more consistently.

HM Treasury

3 Recommendation Accepted

Departments do not receive enough support from Cabinet Office in certain aspects of arm’s-length bodies...

Recommendation

Departments do not receive enough support from Cabinet Office in certain aspects of arm’s-length bodies management. When this Committee last reported on ALBs in 2016 we found inconsistencies in the way that departments managed their ALBs. This inconsistency remains, with … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation and commits to writing to the Committee by January 2022 with an update on the Public Bodies Reform Programme, which includes workstreams on governance, data, and sponsorship skills across government.

HM Treasury

4 Recommendation Accepted

The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury do not have a common view of risks across...

Recommendation

The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury do not have a common view of risks across arm’s-length bodies. Departments collect risk data from their ALBs on a regular basis. The Cabinet Office does not request this, nor use it to identify … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation and will work with the Government Finance Function to promote good practice, create common frameworks for risk management maturity to be published by Summer 2022, and use departmental assessments to inform reviews and enhance risk awareness.

HM Treasury

5 Recommendation Accepted

Poor data and legacy IT are a barrier to effective oversight of its arm’s-length bodies.

Recommendation

Poor data and legacy IT are a barrier to effective oversight of its arm’s-length bodies. There are real risks to departments as a result of aging IT systems, including threats to resilience and inconsistencies in data presentation and comparability. Legacy … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the recommendation, confirming HM Treasury will write to the Committee after the 2021 Spending Review to detail how legacy IT issues are being addressed, noting a £2.6 billion investment in cyber and legacy IT.

HM Treasury

7 Recommendation Accepted

The Cabinet Office has yet to put in place a strategy for 2021 onwards.

Recommendation

The Cabinet Office has yet to put in place a strategy for 2021 onwards. It told us that a realistic reform programme is extremely important in ensuring accountability, performance, and the proper use of all public funds, but implementation of … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the recommendation and commits to writing to the Committee by January 2022 with updates on the Public Bodies Reform Programme, implementation of Action 24, lessons learned from reviews, its emerging Public Bodies Strategy, efficiency considerations, and adherence to guidance.

HM Treasury

8 Conclusion Accepted

When proposing a new ALB, the sponsoring department must submit a business case to ministers...

Conclusion

When proposing a new ALB, the sponsoring department must submit a business case to ministers at both the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. Each business case must fulfil a number of requirements set by the two departments, including demonstrating the … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation, committing to continue requiring business cases for new ALBs that adhere to specific criteria, and will develop an updated internal business case checklist by Spring 2022 to improve consistency.

HM Treasury

9 Recommendation Accepted

Despite the Cabinet Office’s stance that ALBs should be used only as a last resort,...

Recommendation

Despite the Cabinet Office’s stance that ALBs should be used only as a last resort, 38% of business cases submitted between 2016 and 2020 did not seriously consider a long-list of alternative delivery models. One quarter of business cases submitted … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation to strengthen requirements for establishing new ALBs, committing to enforce adherence to the Green Book, specific assessment criteria, and to develop an updated internal business case checklist by Spring 2022.

HM Treasury

10 Recommendation Accepted

The Cabinet Office is responsible for publishing guidance for departments and ALBs and provides direct...

Recommendation

The Cabinet Office is responsible for publishing guidance for departments and ALBs and provides direct support on any questions or issues. However, out of the departments and ALBs interviewed by the NAO, three quarters said they would welcome increased guidance … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the recommendation and commits to writing to the Committee by January 2022, providing an update on the Public Bodies Reform Programme and how it will address guidance adherence, benchmarking support, and improved sponsorship skills across government.

HM Treasury

11 Conclusion Accepted

When this Committee last reported in 2016 it noted that the quality of oversight by...

Conclusion

When this Committee last reported in 2016 it noted that the quality of oversight by departments was inconsistent.20 There remains a lack of consistency in how ALBs work with departments and how they are held to account. In order to … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation to assure guidance adherence, support benchmarking, and improve sponsorship skills. It commits to a new Public Bodies Reform Programme and will provide an update to the Committee by January 2022 on its progress and next steps for workstreams on governance, data, and sponsorship.

HM Treasury

12 Recommendation Accepted

Framework agreements and Accounting Officer System Statements are important in clarifying relationships and accountabilities, both...

Recommendation

Framework agreements and Accounting Officer System Statements are important in clarifying relationships and accountabilities, both between departments and ALBs and across wider departmental groups.24 Framework agreements formalise the governing principles and the relationship between ALB and sponsor department, and Accounting … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the committee's recommendation and commits to updating them by January 2022 on the Public Bodies Reform Programme, which includes governance workstreams to ensure important documents are regularly reviewed and updated.

HM Treasury

13 Recommendation Accepted

When this Committee last reported on ALBs in 2016 we noted that the Cabinet Office...

Recommendation

When this Committee last reported on ALBs in 2016 we noted that the Cabinet Office should use its position at the centre of government to ensure that the management of ALBs was improved.27 One of the ways the Cabinet Office … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the recommendation and commits to working with the Government Finance Function to promote good practice, create common risk assessment frameworks by Summer 2022, use departmental risk assessments, and enhance capabilities.

HM Treasury

14 Conclusion Accepted

The Accounting Officer for the Ministry of Justice explained her responsibilities for the risk and...

Conclusion

The Accounting Officer for the Ministry of Justice explained her responsibilities for the risk and performance of the ALBs within the Ministry of Justice departmental group boundary. As part of this, the Ministry of Justice requests performance, financial and risk … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation to gain assurance on consolidated ALB risks and use departmental assessments to inform cross-cutting risk discussions. It commits to working with the Government Finance Function to promote good practice, create common frameworks by Summer 2022, and enhance risk management capabilities.

HM Treasury

15 Conclusion Accepted

The Cabinet Office told us it focusses on cross-cutting risks that can only be addressed...

Conclusion

The Cabinet Office told us it focusses on cross-cutting risks that can only be addressed at the centre of government. It addresses these risks through the production of the national risk register and the national security risk assessment, and through … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the recommendation to gain assurance on consolidated ALB risks and use departmental assessments to inform cross-cutting risk discussions. It commits to working with the Government Finance Function to promote good practice, create common frameworks by Summer 2022, and enhance risk management capabilities.

HM Treasury

16 Conclusion Accepted

The NAO report highlights that best practice relationships between a sponsor department and an ALB...

Conclusion

The NAO report highlights that best practice relationships between a sponsor department and an ALB include the sharing of performance information and risk-based data which is discussed on a regular basis.33 The Ministry of Justice told us that one of … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agreed with the committee's conclusion that poor data and legacy IT are barriers to effective oversight, committing to have HM Treasury write to the committee detailing how the 2021 Spending Review addresses these issues and outlining a £2.6 billion investment in cyber and legacy IT.

HM Treasury

17 Conclusion Accepted

Extracting data from aging IT systems is expensive, sometimes impossible, and it is costly to...

Conclusion

Extracting data from aging IT systems is expensive, sometimes impossible, and it is costly to combine data from different systems.36 As a result, comparable data is not readily available to the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury on the different types … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the (paraphrased) recommendation for HM Treasury to report on legacy IT bids, confirming that HM Treasury will write to the Committee by Winter 2021 and noting a £2.6 billion investment in cyber and legacy IT over the 2021 Spending Review period.

HM Treasury