National Offender Management Service
National Offender Management Service

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2006-06-06

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215029164

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The prison population in England and Wales has been increasing since the 1990s and by November 2005 it reached a record level of 77,800, resulting in increased levels of overcrowding and stretched resources. Following on from a NAO report (HC 458, session 2005-06 (ISBN 0102935696) published in October 2005, the Committee's report examines how the Home Office, the Prison Service and the National Offender Management Service (which has responsibility for managing and accommodating prisoners) are dealing with the challenges involved in accommodating this record number of prisoners, the construction and use of temporary accommodation and the impact on the delivery of education and other training for prisoners. The Committee makes a number of conclusions and recommendations including in relation to: the deportation of foreign nationals, the use of alternatives to remand such as electronic tagging, contingency planning to ensure greater flexibility in accommodation plans including pilot testing new accommodation to identify possible problems early on, the application of best practice in anti-suicide monitoring measures, and the impact of moving prisoners around the prison estate on their training needs.

H.M. Treasury
H.M. Treasury

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2007-11-27

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780215037350

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) there are now 800 contracts with private sector suppliers for services worth in total £155 billion up to 2032. To achieve value for money, all stages of a project have to be managed effectively, including in the tendering process. The Committee, in a 2003 report highlighted a number of issues regarding the PFI tendering process (HCP 764, session 2002-03, ISBN 9780215011244). This report re-examines the tendering and benchmarking in PFI, finding that the Treasury had done little to apply what it had learned from the large number of PFI deals signed; that there has been no improvement in tendering times and significant risks to value for money continue to be taken when public authorities make late changes to deals. The Committee has set out 7 conclusions and recommendations, including: that since 2004, the proportion of deals attracting only two bidders has more than doubled with the risk of no competition; one third of public sector teams made changes to PFI projects after they had selected a single, preferred bidder; benchmarking and market testing have increased prices by up to 14%; public authorities have found it difficult to find appropriate data to benchmark PFI service costs; there is evidence that public authorities, faced with price increases have had to cut back services in hospitals, including portering, to keep contracts affordable; that there is a continuing lack of PFI experience and skills within public procurement teams.

Reducing Brain Damage
Reducing Brain Damage

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2006-07-11

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9780215029683

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Strokes are one of the top three causes of death in England and a leading cause of adult disability. There are 110,000 strokes each year in England, with a quarter occurring to people under 65 years. Some 300,000 people in England are living with moderate to severe disabilities as a result of a stroke. As the NAO report on this subject pointed out (HCP 452, session 05/06 NAO ISBN 010293570X), it costs the economy in total about £7 billion a year, with the direct cost to the NHS about £2.8 billion. This Committee of Public Accounts report takes evidence from the Department of Health and sets out a number of recommendations. The cost of stroke, in both economic and human terms, could be reduced by re-organizing existing services more effectively. Brain scans of many stroke patients are being delayed, everyone who suffers a stroke should be scanned as soon as possible after arrival in hospital, and should not wait more than 24 hours. Stroke patients should spend longer in hospital on a stroke unit, this could reduce the number of deaths. There needs to be an increase in the number of consultants who have training in dealing with strokes, as well as therapists and other specialist staff with expertise in stroke care across the primary and secondary healthcare sectors. The Department of Health should improve provision of information to stroke survivors and carers, so they are made more aware of the support services available. The Department should run an awareness campaign to improve public knowledge about strokes

Recovery of Debt by the Inland Revenue,Forty-Ninth Report of Session 2003-04,Report,Together with Formal Minutes,Oral and Written Evidence
Recovery of Debt by the Inland Revenue,Forty-Ninth Report of Session 2003-04,Report,Together with Formal Minutes,Oral and Written Evidence

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9780215020352

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Inland Revenue collects over £200 billion a year in tax and National Insurance contributions from 30 million taxpayers, ranging from individuals to multinational corporations. The total amount of debt from unpaid taxes stood at £12 billion at the end of March 2004, of which £3 billion was more than a year old. Following on from a NAO report (HCP 363, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102927596) published in March 2004, the Committee has examined the progress made by the Inland Revenue to speed up debt recovery, whether more can be done to encourage prompt payment and the application of good practice in debt management. Findings include that the Department should impose a surcharge on persistent late payers; use other government departmental records to find taxpayers it cannot trace; seek additional powers for enforcing debts similar to those of other tax authorities; and include debt management data in its performance measures.

Tax Avoidance
Tax Avoidance

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-04-26

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780215056986

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Among those ranged against HMRC are the big four accountancy firms, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG, and PwC, which earn £2 billion each year from their tax work in the UK. They employ nearly 9,000 people just to provide tax advice aimed at minimizing the tax paid. Between them they boast 250 transfer pricing specialists whereas HMRC has only 65 people working in this area. The firms declare that their focus is now on acceptable tax planning and not aggressive tax avoidance however they continue to sell complex tax avoidance schemes with as little as 50 per cent chance of succeeding if challenged in court. The large accountancy firms are in a powerful position in the tax world and have an unhealthily cosy relationship with government. They second staff to the Treasury to advise on formulating tax legislation. When those staff return to their firms, they have the very inside knowledge and insight to be able to identify loopholes in the new legislation and advise their clients on how to take advantage of them. This is a clear conflict of interest which should be banned in a code of conduct for tax advisers. The UK must also take the lead in demanding urgent reform of international tax law, so that companies have to pay a fair share of tax where they actually do business and make profits. Furthermore, the job of simplifying our tax code needs to be taken seriously; yet the Office of Tax Simplification has just 6 people working in it

Services for people with neurological conditions
Services for people with neurological conditions

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-03-16

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215042934

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Approximately two million people in the United Kingdom have a neurological condition, including Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis. But individual care is often poorly coordinated and the quality of services received depends on where you live. Some areas simply don't have enough expertise, both in hospitals and the community. In 2005, the Department for Health launched a new Framework to provide services for people with a neurological condition. There have been some improvements, such as a reduction in waiting times. But unlike the strategies for Cancer and Stroke, the model used to implement the Framework hasn't worked. For this clinical area, the Department left the implementation to local health commissioners but gave them no leadership at all and set no clear targets. It set no baselines and failed to monitor progress and so could not hold them to account where things went wrong. The present Government needs to understand what went wrong here for the future. Health spending on neurological conditions increased by nearly 40 per cent in three years. Over much the same period, emergency admissions have risen by 32 per cent and readmissions to hospital within 28 days have increased from 11.2 per cent to 14 per cent. The Department is moving towards a decentralised health and social care landscape. In doing so, it must set clear objectives for joint health and social care outcomes and services for people with neurological conditions

Oversight of user choice and provider competition in care markets
Oversight of user choice and provider competition in care markets

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-12-06

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780215038913

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Currently, 340,000 people, or 30 % of eligible care users, have a personal budget, which enables the individual to choose their care provider. The Government wants all eligible users to be offered a personal budget by April 2013. Personal budgets currently cost the taxpayer £1.5 billion each year. The total annual expenditure on care is around £23 billion. Effective oversight of the care market is essential to protect the interests of both social care users and of taxpayers. There is growing consolidation in the social care market at a regional level. Yet the Department did not have a view on what level of market share represents a risk of provider dominance, or arrangements to protect users should a large-scale provider fail. This is worrying given the recent experience of Southern Cross and the high levels of debt that some providers are carrying. There are risks to the future functioning of the social care market from local authority budget reductions. The report notes some difficult areas with personal budgets: provision of advice, ease of changing support, redress. The Department has to rely on local authorities to implement its policy of universal provision of personal budgets but it cannot compel local authorities to act. The Department will shortly issue a White Paper on reforming social care delivery. The changes the Department makes must address concerns about giving users a real choice, overseeing the market to ensure competition and stability, and putting in place arrangements and contingencies to deal with major provider failure.

Hmrc
Hmrc

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780215525352

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tax lost through the hidden economy could be over £2 billion and involve some 2 million people. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) spent 41 million in 2006-07 on encouraging people and businesses into the formal economy, detecting and imposing sanctions on those operating in the hidden economy, achieving a return/cost ration of 4.5:1. HMRC detects some 30,000 hidden economy cases a year, a detection rate of only around 1.5 per cent, but the amount of tax recovered has increased by 13 per cent in real terms since 2003-04. Areas of risk include: self-employed builders and decorators who often receive cash payments; individuals who trade on the internet; and buy-to-let landlords. To increase detections HMRC is making more use of data matching techniques, and the Tax Evasion hotline received over 120,000 calls in 2006-07, but progress in investigating cases has been slow with only 2000 completed against a target of 5,500. HMRC can impose penalties of up to 100 per cent of tax owed, but usually imposes a lower penalty or waives them. Prosecutions are not given much publicity, limiting their wider deterrent effect. Advertising campaigns to encourage people to declare tax owed have led to 8,300 registrations bringing in extra tax of £38 million over three years. Offshore Disclosure arrangements have been even more successful following landmark rulings requiring financial institutions to release details of around 400,000 offshore accounts. Some 45,000 people came forward bringing in around £400 million at a cost of £6 million, a return of £67 for every £1 spent.

Department for Education
Department for Education

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-04-23

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9780215056917

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Academies are funded directly by central government, directly accountable to the Department for Education, and outside local authority control. They have greater financial freedoms than maintained schools. By September 2012 the number of open academies had increased tenfold, from 203 to 2,309. Academies are the Department's chosen vehicle for school reform, but increasing schools' autonomy and removing them from local authority control gives the Department responsibility for ensuring value for money. The Department has incurred significant costs from the complex and inefficient system it has used for funding the Academies Programme and its oversight of academies has had to play catch-up with the rapid growth in academy numbers. In the two years from April 2010 to March 2012, the Department spent £8.3 billion on Academies; £1 billion of this was an additional cost to the Department not originally budgeted for this purpose, some of which was not recovered from local authorities. The Department must improve the efficiency of its funding mechanisms and stop the growth in other costs. Furthermore, the Department has yet to establish effective school-level financial accountability for academies operating within chains. What will determine whether the Department ultimately achieves value for money is academies' impact on educational performance relative to the investment from the taxpayer. If the Department is to be held properly to account for its spending on academies, it must insist that every Academy Trust provides it with data showing school-level expenditure, including per-pupil costs, and with a level of detail comparable to that available for maintained schools.

The Supervision of Community Orders in England and Wales
The Supervision of Community Orders in England and Wales

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

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008-11-04

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780215524294

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Since their introduction under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, community orders have offered courts the ability to impose a range of 12 possible 'requirements', including accredited programmes (such as anger management courses or alcohol and drug rehabilitation), unpaid work in the community and supervision by the National Probation Service. There is little information available nationally on the effectiveness of community orders. On the key measure of reconviction, figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that for those sentenced to community orders, their actual reconviction rate was significantly lower than those sentenced to custodial sentences for similar offences. There is, though, no basic information such as national data on whether offenders have completed their community orders, nor on why offenders have failed to complete them. The National Probation Service has set national standards but these are applied inconsistently. The Ministry's current method of funding Probation Areas is unsatisfactory and slow to respond to changes in demand from the courts and it is felt that there is a need for a more flexible system. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Committee examined the Ministry of Justice on increasing effectiveness of community orders; building the confidence of both the court and the community in community orders; improving the funding formula; and tightening adherence to the requirements of orders.