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Dated January 2013. The reports published as HC 104 (ISBN 9780215047670), HC 288 (ISBN 9780215047632), HC 532 (ISBN 9780215048684), HC 388 (ISBN 9780215048691), HC 103 (ISBN 9780215048653); HC 389 (ISBN 9780215049704)

HM Treasury

Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 46


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The Treasury acts as both the finance ministry and economic ministry but it appears to neglect its role as finance ministry. Its own accounts are impenetrable and there are many instances of poor decision making by departments, which the Treasury could and should have prevented. While staff turnover fell in 2011-12, it is still very high. Furthermore, the Treasury remains committed to cutting its headcount by a third and there are still very few women at senior levels. The support provided to banks in the last crisis helped prevent the banking system from collapse. The Treasury has successfully withdrawn nearly all of the taxpayer guarantees to banks but the taxpayer still owns some £66 billion of shares in RBS and Lloyds, a sum which is yet to be recovered. The Treasury has not convinced that it understands either the risks it has taken on by indemnifying the Bank of England against losses on Quantitative Easing or the expected economic benefits. Some £375 billion has so far been injected into the economy as an 'experiment' but the Department could not explain what the effect has been on the whole economy or on different parts of society. The National Loans Guarantee Scheme achieved just 15 per cent of its intended take-up and has now been superseded by a more generous Bank of England scheme. The Treasury needs to be clear what it wants this Bank of England scheme to achieve, and how it intends to monitor it.
The Department for Education provides funding for local authorities to pay for three and four year olds to receive their entitlement to 15 hours of free education each week. The Department devolves delivery to local authorities and providers but it is responsible for the overall value for money from the system. In 2011-12 the Department's estimated funding for the entitlement of £1.9 billion provided over 800,000 three and four year olds with access to free education; an estimated annual allocation of approximately £2,300 per child. While the Department and local authorities have focused on ensuring places for children are available, there has been less attention on how value for money can be secured and improved. While there is evidence of educational improvement at age five, the evidence that this is sustained is questionable. The Department needs to do more to understand how educational benefits can be lasting. There is not enough good information for parents to make informed choices and there is concern at reports that some families are still not receiving the entitlement free of charge. It is important that all parents know what the entitlement is and that it should be provided completely free. Early years education has the greatest benefit for children from disadvantaged backgrounds however these children have the lowest levels of take-up and deprived areas have the lowest levels of high quality services. The Department needs to identify and share good practice from those local authorities which are having the most success.

Means testing

Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Published: 2012-01-12

Total Pages: 44


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The Government uses means testing to distribute at least £87 billion of benefits to claimants each year, around 13% of total public spending. The poorest fifth of households rely on means-tested benefits for a third of their net income. The planned introduction of a new means-tested Universal Credit will replace a number of existing means-tested benefits. Currently 30 different means tested benefits are managed by nine departments and 152 local authorities in England. But Departments have a limited understanding of how their design of benefits affects incentives for employment, the burden on claimants, take-up and administrative costs. Departments need to improve their understanding of how all benefits interact and how changes to eligibility rules can affect claimants. Complexity increases the burden on claimants which can harm take-up, and is likely to disadvantage the most vulnerable members of society in particular. The Government expects Universal Credit reforms to simplify the system and improve incentives to find work. The DWP's priority is to focus on the effective delivery of these reforms. However, success will also depend on proper coordination between Universal Credit and other means-tested benefits. In addition, DWP and HMRC are designing a real-time information (RTI) system for Universal Credit to reduce the risk of overpayments, with benefits being recalculated as soon as circumstances change. Both DWP and HMRC need to understand how the introduction of this system will impact on small businesses and the self-employed who may not have the necessary IT to administer it.
Around half of all children in the UK from separated families are being brought up in poverty. In 2010-11 the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission collected and transferred £1.1 billion to parents caring for more than 880,000 children. Nevertheless significant, all too familiar and recurring challenges remain: parents are frustrated with the standard of support received from the Commission. Maintenance payments totalling some £3.7 billion are outstanding, but the Commission estimates that only £1 billion of this is collectable; and costs remain high. The Commission also faces further significant challenges in introducing its new child maintenance scheme. In particular, it will need to respond to substantial cost reductions and successfully implement a new system of charging fees to parents who choose to use the Commission's services. The Commission needs to deliver acceptable standards of service at a reasonable cost. The new child maintenance scheme should improve efficiency, but further changes are needed to streamline existing processes. The Commission has to deliver cost reductions of £117 million by 2014-15 and its plans are currently £16 million short of this target. Its cost reduction plans depend in part on a new IT system which is already late. To meet the current timetable critical testing will have to be undertaken in parallel with development work, mirroring poor practices that have contributed to the failure of a number of government IT projects. Each month of delay will increase the Commission's costs by at least £3 million and may delay planned income from fees.
Flood protection is a national priority and features on the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies. Recently the annual cost of flood damage has been £1.1 billion, and 5.2 million homes are at risk of flooding. In 2010-11 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (the Department) spent £664 million on flood and coastal risk management, 95% of which went to the Environment Agency (the Agency). In 2009 the Agency projected that its flood risk management budget needed to rise by 9% during the spending review period (2011-12 to 2014-15) to sustain current levels of protection. However during the same period the Agency's flood risk management budget has been reduced by over 10%. The Department wants to increase local authority and private contributions, but expecting an increase in local authority contributions when their resources are reducing may well be over-optimistic. The Committee was very concerned that the Department did not accept ultimate responsibility for managing the risk of floods. The Department also needs more reliable information to inform its decisions on when and where to intervene if local risk management plans are inadequate. The Agency needs to improve how it involves local communities in the decision-making process. The agreement between the Department and the insurance industry that insurance cover will be provided to households at risk of flooding ends in 2013. In some areas premiums appear to have risen as a result of growing uncertainty over local levels of protection, so an early revised agreement is needed.
BBC's efficiency Programme : Seventy-third report of session 2010-12, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written Evidence
The National Audit Office report on this topic published as HC 1788, session 2010-12 (ISBN 9780102975376)
The Stationery Office annual catalogue 2011 provides a comprehensive source of bibliographic information on over 4900 Parliamentary, statutory and official publications - from the UK Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and many government departments and agencies - which were issued in 2011.