Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9780102954715

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is three years into its five-year strategy to deliver improved support to UK exporters, and it is close to meeting most of its performance targets. UKTI has extensive arrangements to obtain regular and systematic feedback on the quality of its services. Some 52 per cent of businesses receiving support reported that their performance improved as a result of receiving support, exceeding its 50 per cent target. Users are also asked to estimate the financial benefit arising as a result of its support, and a 2008 figure of £229,000, on average, per business is used by UKTI to calculate its reported benefit to cost ratio of 15:1. But the underlying survey data shows that 29 per cent of users either did not know, or declined to provide an estimate, 30 per cent forecast some financial benefit and 40 per cent forecast no financial benefit. The survey focuses on forecast impact rather than actual financial impact. UKTI has sought to improve efficiency by shifting resources to better performing markets and services. In the year to March 2008 expenditure on trade support fell by 4.5 per cent while the number of businesses supported rose by 35 per cent. UKTI does not have a full picture of the costs of providing the individual services. It is not in a position to gauge reliably the efficiency of its activities, the contribution of different parts of the organisation to these services, or the relative costs and benefits of the different services it provides. In 2008 UKTI established a model for cost assessment, but this is not yet sophisticated enough to demonstrate whether value for money is being optimised.