Download or read book The Office Accommodation of the Department for Culture Media and Sport and Its Sponsored Bodies written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-03-16 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report looks at the cost and utilization of the office accommodation occupied by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and 24 of its sponsored bodies. The 25 organisations covered by this report spent some £43 million in 2004-05. The focus of the report is on cost efficiency, with consideration of two key indicators (i) the cost of space (rent, rates and operating costs such as cleaning and utilities); (ii) the way that space is used (the number of square metres per member of staff), which combined, give the measure of cost per person. The NAO sets out a number of recommendations: that all organizations should adopt the efficiency measurement as based on cost per unit of space, space per person and cost per person; that performance data in measuring efficiency should be shared across departments; further efficiency measures should be examined, including renegotiating rental payments; reducing operating costs; subletting space to others; reducing demand for workstations. Also longer term policies should be taken into consideration such as: reorganizing existing offices into more space efficient layouts; exploring the scope for achieving savings through moving premises; achieving economies of scale. Further to this, all organizations should have an accommodation strategy, and adopt a coordinated approach to property management.

Download or read book Filing of VAT and company tax returns written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-12-04 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, this report examined HM Revenue and Customs on getting VAT and Company Tax returns in on time, encouraging businesses to file tax returns online. The Department spends over £9 million a year on processing nine million VAT and Company Tax returns but one in five Company Tax returns and one in seven VAT returns are filed late or not at all. The Department lacks information on businesses that repeatedly file late and the links between late filing and other forms of non-compliance. The penalty regimes are variable and the fixed rate penalties for Company tax are low and not routinely applied, so the Department should also look at non-financial incentives such as tax clearance certificates. Less than 10% of companies' use online filing and the Department does not expect to meet its target of getting 50% of VAT returns filed online by 2007-8 and plans for mandatory online filing for Company Tax have been put back to 2010. Online filing would save the Department most of its current processing costs and be cheaper for businesses. Additional plans to reduce the administrative burden of filing taxes are unlikely to be implemented before 2011.

Download or read book Dr Foster Intelligence written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-18 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Health established the Information Centre in April 2005, in order to centralise the collection and dissemination of information across the NHS to support their health reform agenda. In February 2006, 'Dr Foster Intelligence' was launched, a joint venture between the Information Centre and Dr Foster Ltd (a private company already successful in health data dissemination) with the aim of developing information products and services which would encourage senior, strategic NHS staff to make effective use of information. The Committee sets out a number of recommendations, including: without a competitive tender, the joint venture seemed to offer an advantage to one company; also without competition, the Information Centre cannot demonstate that it paid the best price for its 50% share; the joint venture deal did not follow established good practice in public sector procurement; the cost of professional advice rose from an initial estimate of £248,000 to between £1.75 and £2.5 million; that the Department and the Information Centre could have made use of wider government experience on forming public private partnerships; it is unclear what benefits the Information Centre will receive from the joint venture; the first year saw a loss of £2.8 million.

Download or read book The Thames Gateway written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-15 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Thames Gateway regeneration programme covers the area between Canary Wharf in London and the mouth of the River Thames, one of the most deprived areas in the Greater South East. It aims to create 160,000 new homes and 180,000 new jobs in the area by 2016 and with further development beyond that date. This project is one of 15 mission critical programmes prioritised by the Government and requires broad cross-government working so that new homes are supported by adequate transport, education, health, community, leisure, green space and environmental infrastructure. It is the only large scale regeneration programme managed directly by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Following on from a NAO report (HCP 526, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102945263) published in May 2007, the Committee's report examines the DCLG's overall management of the programme on four main issues: turning aspirations into plans that are delivered; more integrated and better co-ordinated expenditure; progress on delivering homes and employment opportunities; and achieving high quality and environmentally sustainable development. Conclusions drawn include that the Department's management has been weak and its programme management systems are not commensurate with the programme's size and scale of ambition. Measurable objectives and robust systems to measure progress are lacking, there are concerns over costing and delivery chain issues.and there is a risk that the economic benefits of regeneration will not reach existing residents.

Download or read book Identity and Passport Service written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-10 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines how lessons learnt from the introduction of ePassports will be incorporated into future projects; the cost of authenticating applicants' identities; passport fee trends; the measures being taken by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) to hold down passport fees; and working with others to reduce costs and improve border security. An ePassport contains an electronic chip storing biographical data and a digital facial image of the passport holder. From 2009 new second generation ePassports will incorporate the fingerprints of the passport holder. Passport fees have risen ahead of inflation since September 2003 to fund ePassport technology and other projects intended to improve the security of the UK passport. From 2009 all passport applicants will have to attend in person to provide fingerprints for inclusion in second generation ePassports. The set-up cost of data collection, validation and storage necessary to introduce these changes will be substantial. During 2007 IPS has been introducing personal interviews at its 69 new interviewing offices for first time adult passport applicants. At least one of the 69 offices is intended to be within an hour's travel by public or private transport for 95% of the UK population (except in remote locations). But elderly and disabled people may still face difficulties in making the journey. With the introduction of second generation ePassports, all applicants will need to attend a local office to give their fingerprints. The long term durability of the chip embedded in the ePassport book is unproven.

Download or read book Improving quality and safety progress in implementing clinical governance in primary care written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-09-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following serious concerns about clinical and organisational failures in the NHS during the 1990s (such as Alder Hey, the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Shipman), the Government identified the need for a more systematic approach to improving quality and safety in healthcare. The Department of Health introduced clinical governance, a framework through which NHS organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are responsible for providing primary care services and commissioning services on behalf of their local health economy. This report examines the Department's progress in implementing clinical governance in primary care; the lessons learned; and the risks that will need to be managed if quality and safety are to be embedded in the new PCTs. that clinical governance is not as well established in primary care as in secondary care, largely because of the complexity of PCTs role in both commissioning and providing care; and the independence of contractors delivering healthcare, particularly General Practitioners (GPs). Primary care has also been slower in adopting a structured approach to quality and safety, evident for example in the lack of compliance with national systems reporting of clinical incidents. There is a lack of clarity between PCTs and their contractors as regards accountability for ensuring quality and safety, and scope for greater involvement of patients and the public in ensuring that primary care services are safe and of high quality.

Download or read book Legal Services Commission written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-16 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Family disputes that are resolved through mediation are cheaper, quicker and, according to academic research, less acrimonious than those that are settled through the courts. Despite these advantages, only some 20 per cent of people who are funded by legal aid for family breakdown cases (excluding those involving domestic violence) currently opt for mediation. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 256, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944525), the Committee's report examines the shortcomings of the current system for referring clients to mediation, and the actions the Legal Services Commission has in train to increase referrals to and take-up of mediation services, to improve the quality of mediation offered, and to strengthen the Commission's oversight of solicitors and mediation providers.

Download or read book Estimating and monitoring the costs of building roads in England written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-08 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Transport has approved expenditure of over £11 billion between 1998 and 2021 for the development of new and existing trunk roads and motorways by the Highways Agency, and just under £1.7 billion on major road schemes proposed and developed by local authorities in five year Local Transport Plans. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 321, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944600) published in March 2007, the Committee's report examines the steps taken by the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency to improve value for money and oversight of the roads programme and contracting methods and project management capability. By September 2006, the Agency's 36 completed schemes in the Targeted Programme of Improvement cost 40 per cent more than estimated initially, and for schemes still to be completed, latest forecasts indicate that final costs could be 27 per cent more than original estimates. The main causes for costs exceeding estimates are increases in construction costs, higher than forecast land prices and compensation to landowners, inflation and changes in the scope of the project. The report finds that the DfT has not been rigorous enough in its oversight of the Agency's delivery of major road schemes, allowing it too much latitude on delivery and cost plans, and has failed to monitor in-year expenditure against progress and delivery milestones. The Agency is overly reliant on consultants for project management expertise and needs to develop its in-house capability.

Download or read book Heritage Lottery Fund written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-23 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since it was set up in 1994, the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £3.8 billion of funding to some 24,000 projects covering all types of heritage with a wide range of benefits. The Fund operates within a framework of policy directions issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and currently distributes one sixth of the money raised by the National Lottery for good causes. Following on from a NAO report (HCP 323, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944624) published in March 2007, the Committee's report looks at how the money has been spent, what has been achieved, and the effectiveness of the grant-making process to ensure value for money. Conclusions reached include that the Fund has successfully reduced the amount of undistributed money it holds but spends around nine per cent of its annual income on administration. Many applicants find the Fund's application and assessment processes confusing, off-putting, and unnecessarily burdensome, and there are significant variations in funding between regions. The Fund is not able to demonstrate effectively its impact in opening up the heritage to people from deprived or minority backgrounds. Although projects are largely delivered to time and cost, the Fund needs to do more to tackle the poor project management skills of some grant recipients. From April 2009, the Government intends to divert more than £160 million from the Fund to help pay for the 2012 Olympics and the Fund's income may be further reduced by as much as £95 million if ring-fenced income from Olympic lottery games diverts sales from other lottery games.

Download or read book The right of access to open countryside written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-06-21 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 introduced a public right to walk across designated mountain, moor, heath, downs and registered common land in England. DEFRA tasked the Countryside Agency with opening-up the new access by the end of 2005, and the target was met with two months to spare. However the implementation of the right to roam cost the Countryside Agency £24.6 million more than anticipated, with knock-on impacts on other programmes. This report looks at the implementation of open access and the effect of the policy under the headings: encouraging the public to use the right to roam across the countryside; protecting the environment of access land and the rights of landowners; improving planning and project management. However the success of legislation is as yet unknown because there is no information on the extent to which the public are making use of their new right. In October 2006 the responsibility for open access passed from the Countryside Agency to Natural England.

Download or read book Recruitment and retention in the armed forces written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-03 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The armed forces are short of servicemen and women. At April 2007, the overall shortfall was 5,850 personnel, or 3.2 per cent and none of the three Services were within their targets, known as 'manning balance'. Many highly specialised areas, such as nurses and linguists, have larger shortfalls. The impact of continuous downsizing, pressures and overstretch is affecting the ability of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to retain and provide a satisfactory life for Armed Forces personnel. Numbers leaving early have risen in the last two years, and are now at a ten-year peak for Army and Royal Air Force Officers and for Royal Air Force Other Ranks. The frequency of deployments is creating pressure on some personnel, with large numbers exceeding the "harmony" guidelines on time spent away from home. The MoD has operated above the most demanding level of operations under Defence Planning Assumptions since 2001, but has not adjusted its manning requirements. Short term financial measures to improve retention have had some success, but do not address the key drivers for leaving such as servicemen and women's inability to plan ahead and the impact on their family life. The MoD also lacks basic information on the costs of its measures which would enable it to make more informed judgements on incentives to improve recruitment and retention. Past cuts in recruitment activity have had a damaging longer-term effect on manning in some areas. Such cutbacks are almost impossible to recover as budget and capacity constraints prevent the MoD from over-recruiting to make up for shortfalls in previous years.

Download or read book The modernisation of the West Coast Main Line written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-06-14 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Railtrack first planned the upgrade of the West Coast Mainline it was to have been completed in two phases in 2002 and 2005, used untried signalling technology and cost £2.6 billion. In the event the signalling was not installed, progress was much slower than anticipated and Railtrack collapsed. Network rail took over the project and put in place a more robust strategy to deliver the upgrade in three stages between 2004 and 2008. The first two stages have already been delivered on schedule. However the total modernisation cost is likely to be around £8.6 billion and the line will still be prone to overcrowding at peak times and is thus likely to need further investment. This report looks at the project on the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Download or read book Department of Health written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-06-07 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Properly managed, the use of temporary nurses can play an important role in helping hospital achieve flexibility. However their high use can have a detrimental impact on patient care and satisfaction. In 2001 the Department of Health anticipated that a growth in the NHS workforce would lead to a decline in the use of temporary staff but in spite of this intention temporary nurses still account for the same percentage of the nursing budget (around 9%). On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Committee has investigated the extent of the use of temporary nurses; whether the process is properly planned and managed; and whether there are safety and quality implications. One of the conclusions is that there has a lack of planning and it is only as a result of the problem with deficits that the NHS has taken a more co-ordinated approach

Download or read book Ministry of Defence written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-09-11 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report from the Committee of Public Accounts provides information on the time, cost and performance of the 20 largest projects of the Ministry of Defence where the main investment decision (known as Main Gate) has been taken. This report follows on from a two volume NAO report published in November 2006 (HCP 23-I/23-II, 06/07 - ISBNs 9780102943740; 9780102943733), into the major projects of the Ministry of Defence. Evidence was taken by the Committee based on the NAO report, covering three main issues: the impact of the cost saving measures identified by the Departmental reviews in 2005-06; the performance of individual projects; the Department's initiatives to improve acquisition performance. The Department undertook a review of the 20 post-Main Gate projects, which reduced costs by £781 million. With £91 million a HM Revenue & Customs rebate, and £242 million the result of better management of commercial and contractual arrangements. But, £448 million of the costs were reclassified as expenditure in other procurement or support budgets or towards corporate management. The re-allocations have, according to the Committee, achieved cost reductions for individual projects, but do not represent a saving for the Department as a whole. Total forecast costs for the approved projects amounts to £27 billion, some 11% over budget. Forecast in-service dates slipped 33 months in-year, and there is a cumulative delay of 433 months for projects over their lives so far. The Department is now placing increased emphasis on through life management of Defence projects, involving the life-cycle management of the projects, services and activities.

Download or read book Child Support Agency written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-05 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since it was established in 1993, the Child Support Agency has consistently underperformed, plagued by enormous backlogs of unprocessed cases and uncollected maintenance. Where it works well, the Agency has secured regular contributions from non-resident parents and helped lift an estimated 100,000 children out of poverty. It has to administer complex assessment, collection and enforcement processes and deal with complicated emotional, financial and legal issues to bring about a degree of financial stability for children and parents. Following on from a NAO report (HCP 1174, session 2005-06; ISBN 9780102938692) published in June 2006, the Committee's report examines the implementation of child support reforms, focusing on why the problems in implementing the reforms arose, the impact on the quality of service, the remedial action taken by the Child Support Agency and the lessons learnt. The report finds that implementing the reforms has cost the taxpayer £539 million since 2000, with plans for a further £320 million to improve service levels over the next three years; but the money has failed to deliver improvements in efficiency and quality of service. The Agency still performs less effectively than its counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, with higher average costs per case and lower rates of compliance. The Government published its White Paper (Cm. 6979, ISBN 9780101697927) in December 2006, drawing on the recommendations made by Sir David Henshaw in his report "Recovering child support: routes to responsibility" (Cm. 6984, ISBN 9780101689427). Amongst the reforms announced, the Government will replace the Child Support Agency (CSA) with a new organisation, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (C-MEC) by 2008.

Download or read book Big science written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-11-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government invests in a range of large scientific facilities to support and develop the nation's science base, with over £860 million allocated since 2000 to construct 10 new large scientific projects. These programmes include: a Diamond Synchrotron (costing £383 million) to produce intense X-rays and shorter wavelength emissions for examining structures at molecular and atomic level; a new research ship, RRS James Cook, to conduct oceanographic and marine studies (a budget of £40 million); and a new Antarctic research station (with a budget of £34.7 million) for monitoring climate, ozone and space weather. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 153, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102944198) published in January 2007, the Committee's report examines how large scientific facilities are delivered and the how their value is assessed. Findings include that the first two projects have been delivered largely to time and budget, but other projects still at an early stage are forecasting slippage, with five of the six most mature projects forecasting significant increases in the initial estimates for operating costs. Research Councils have not always sufficiently evaluated options for locating new scientific facilities and have had difficulty in attracting a sufficient number of bidders for contracts to help build new facilities. Performance indicators used by the Research Councils and project teams for monitoring the success of these facilities are not always sufficiently comprehensive or measurable, and if the UK is to maximise the value of these facilities, it needs to attract more young people into science to make good use of the research capacity now being built.

Download or read book Preparations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-10 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from the NAO report (HCP 252, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780102944273) published in February 2007, the Committee has examined the progress that has been made in preparing for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the areas of risk that will need to be managed. The report highlights seven main areas of risk including: i) the governance and delivery structures needed to co-ordinate the multiplicity of organisations and groups involved in the Games; ii) given the immovable deadline of the Games, any slippage in the delivery programme risks rising costs or a reduction in quality; iii) as the ultimate guarantor of funding for the Games, the Government needs to ensure the budget for the Games is clearly determined and effectively managed, given that the costs of the Games were seriously underestimated at the time of the bid; iv) the need for clarity in planning to ensure a lasting legacy for venues after the Games are over; and v) planning to minimise the impact of funding the Games on other National Lottery good causes.