Accountability for public money - progress report

Accountability for public money - progress report

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-04-17

Total Pages: 82

ISBN-13: 9780215043740

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This report is a follow-up to the Committee's report on Accountability for Public Money (HC 740, session 2010-11 (ISBN 9780215559029)) an issue at the core of the relationship between Parliament and government. Accounting Officers remain accountable to Parliament for funds voted to their departments but the policy intention is that local bodies will have significant discretion over the services they deliver. In the Government's response, 'Accountability: Adapting to Decentralisation', Sir Bob Kerslake drew a distinction between those services that government delivers directly and those that it may fund but are delivered in more decentralised arrangements. He proposed that Accounting Officers set out, in Accountability System Statements, the arrangements they have in place to provide assurance about the probity and value for money of funds spent through devolved systems. All departments are expected to produce Statements by summer 2012. Departments have made a genuine effort to develop arrangements which reconcile accountability and localism but the Statements so far are unwieldy and considerably more needs to be done to improve their clarity, consistency and completeness. There is concern that accountability frameworks must drive value for money and, critically, are sufficiently robust to address the operational or financial failure of service providers. Departments are placing increasing reliance on market mechanisms such as user choice to drive up performance and value for money, but there are limits to what these mechanisms can achieve. The Treasury needs to take ownership of the system and ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor General has the necessary powers and rights of access to examine the value for money of funds spent through devolved systems


Department for Education

Department for Education

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-05-11

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215044075

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The Department for Education is distributing £56.4 billion in 2011-12 to schools, local authorities and other public bodies for the delivery of education and children's services in England. The Department has set out how it intends to provide Parliament with assurance about the regularity, propriety and value for money in an Accountability System Statement (the Statement) of which the Committee has now seen three drafts. Responsibility for value for money is shared by the Department with schools, academy trusts, local authorities, the Young People's Learning Agency and the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, the Statement does not yet clearly describe the specific responsibilities of each body, how these will interact, or how the Department will assess value for money across the entire education system. The Department relies on local authorities and the YPLA to exercise financial oversight over local authority maintained schools and academies respectively. However, oversight by some local authorities is currently weak and could worsen as many authorities reduce the resources they devote to overseeing their schools. There are also concerns about whether the YPLA will have the right skills, systems and capacity to oversee the rapidly increasing numbers of academies expected in coming years. More consistent requirements for data and data returns must be applied to all schools so that academic and financial performance can be benchmarked, and all schools can be held accountable. The Department needs to enforce these requirements more stringently, particularly given previous problems with lack of compliance


Managing Public Money

Managing Public Money

Author: Great Britain. Treasury

Publisher: Stationery Office Books (TSO)

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 69

ISBN-13: 9780115601262

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Dated October 2007. The publication is effective from October 2007, when it replaces "Government accounting". Annexes to this document may be viewed at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk


Funding for Local Transport

Funding for Local Transport

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-10-25

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9780102980431

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In this report the National Audit Office identifies issues and risks which may arise as the Department for Transport devolves more control over funding and delivery of transport services to local bodies. The Department has recently announced proposals to devolve funding for major transport schemes to new local transport bodies and is also consulting on devolving bus funding and some responsibilities for rail services to local authorities. The spending watchdog is calling on the Department to clarify its approach as it implements these changes and moves into the new ways of working. This includes being clearer on who is accountable for local transport funding and how they will be held to account. The Department has already said it will assess whether local transport bodies have appropriate systems and processes in place. But it should clarify how it will check that these devolved arrangements continue to meet its standards and what action it will take if standards are not met. In the context of increasing pressure on local budgets, the Department should clarify how local transport data can be better used to judge value for money and to compare performance between local areas. It also needs to identify areas and activities most at risk of a drop in performance and clarify under what circumstances it would expect to intervene.


Working Together

Working Together

Author: Ben Jupp

Publisher: Demos

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13: 1841800252

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Explores the increasing use of partnerships between government, business and community organizations for tackling social problems. Focuses on partnerships which operate at the local level. Considers how well these partnerships work in practice, examines their management and makes recommendations for improving the environment for partnership working.