Download or read book The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue 2011 written by Stationery Office and published by . This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Twenty sixth Report of Session 2012 13 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-21 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Higher Education Funding Council for England annual report and accounts 2010 11 written by Higher Education Funding Council for England and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-05-12 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher Education Funding Council for England annual report and Accounts 2010-11

Download or read book Department for International Development s Annual Report and Accounts 2011 12 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About two-thirds of DFID's expenditure in 2011-12, including nearly 40% of its bilateral spending, went through multilateral organisations even though they have higher administrative costs. This represents a major change in recent years and has been accompanied by a decline in direct aid to recipient Governments. DFID argues that the change is not a reflection of its need to spend money quickly, but a result of the reduced need for budget support in countries with rising tax bases and improved financial management, as well as its focus on fragile states. The DFID needs to ensure that it has thoroughly examined other options such as greater use of local NGOs and sector budget support. DFID has switched expenditure from low income to middle income countries, in part because several countries with a large number of poor people have recently graduated to middle-income status. Policy towards middle income countries varies and DFID needs establish and make public the criteria it will use to inform decisions of when and how it should cease to provide aid. DFID should also consider establishing a Development Bank - that could offer concessional loans alongside grant aid and would free from the constraint of having to ensure that cash was spent by the end of the financial year. Staffing also may still not be sufficient to oversee the huge expenditure of UK taxpayers' money undertaken by multilaterals. MPs remain concerned that DFID's has ended its bilateral programme in one of the world's poorest countries, Burundi, and is urging the new Secretary of State to re-instate it.

Download or read book Financial management report 2011 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-11-23 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financial management at the Ministry of Justice has improved considerably since the National Audit Office last examined this subject in 2010 (HC 187, ISBN 9780102965339). The Ministry now has effective governance structures in place and, in 2010-11, managed its money far more effectively, allowing it to redeploy funds to where they were most needed. Financial management is now much more central to the operation of the organisation and the quality and consistency of financial planning and forecasting have improved. Financial information for decision making is more relevant and useful, with the Ministry's planning work allowing it to bring together a wide range of business information to estimate the financial implications of its workload. It has also improved oversight of its arm's-length bodies. The Ministry still has gaps in financial reporting skills and some of its underlying systems need further improvement. It was one of only two government departments that failed to produce their financial accounts by the 2011 summer Parliamentary recess, mainly due to the accounts for the National Offender Management Service being produced late. The Legal Services Commission, an arm's-length body of the MOJ, had the audit opinion on its 2010-11 accounts qualified owing to the potential level of error, put at an estimated £50 million. There has also been little change in how the Ministry monitors and collects assets due under confiscation orders, with the amount of outstanding debt having increased by almost £400 million in 2010-11.

Download or read book Ordnance Survey Annual Report and Accounts 2012 13 written by Great Britain. Ordnance Survey and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Apprenticeships written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 1843-i to 1843-vi, Session 2010-12. Additional written evidence is contained in Volume 3, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/bis

Download or read book HC 1063 Education Funding Agency And Department For Education 2012 13 Financial Statements written by and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Public Accounts Committee report examines the Education Funding Agency and Department for Education 2012-13 financial statements. Since it was set up in April 2012, the Education Funding Agency (the Agency) has succeeded in getting money to education providers on time. In 2012-13, the Agency distributed £51 billion of capital and revenue funding for 10 million learners to local authorities, academies, academy trusts, further education institutions, sixth-form colleges and other types of education providers. Between 2012-13 and 2015-16, the Agency expects that the number of all education providers it funds will increase by around 50% to almost 12,000, of which nearly 7,000 will be academies. At the same time, the Agency plans to reduce its administration costs by 15%, a huge challenge. It should improve efficiency, transparency and accountability in the education sector, especially in respect of the growing number of academies, but lacks the systems and data it needs. The Agency has not yet achieved an acceptable level of compliance with its reporting requirements and the Committee finds it is too reactive and does not spot risks or intervene in schools quickly enough. Not enough is known about conflicts of interest in academies and the risk they pose to the proper use of public money, not The Agency has no way of knowing whether academy chief executives and trustees are 'fit-and-proper persons', and there are flaws in the methodology used to consolidate the accounts of academies, as well as data quality issues, which undermine accountability.

Download or read book Department for Business Innovation and Skills written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-23 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Skills Funding Agency provide funding for further education students aged 19-plus. The Department for Education and the Young People's Learning Agency fund further education for 16-to-18-year-olds. These two departments provided £7.7 billion in funding to the sector during the 2010/11 academic year. The various government bodies that interact with the sector have different funding, qualification and assurance systems. Differences in the information required and collected create an unnecessary burden for training providers and divert money away from learners. To provide value for money, the systems need to be appropriate, efficient, avoid unnecessary duplication, and balance the protections they provide for public money with the costs of the bureaucracy they impose. No one body is currently accountable for reducing bureaucracy in the further education sector. Instead, the two Departments and the two funding agencies maintain separate responsibilities based on their funding streams. BIS has a stated policy objective of reducing bureaucracy imposed on further education providers but would not accept overall responsibility for bringing together efforts to reduce bureaucracy in the sector. Both BIS and DfE, and their funding agencies, have launched separate initiatives designed to simplify the requirements they place on providers. However BIS does not manage the simplification as a programme with a clear and consistent goal. While BIS has required the Agency to reduce its own administrative costs by 33%, there is no rational view on the amount by which they would like to reduce bureaucracy in providers nor do they accept that measurement of progress is necessary.

Download or read book Twenty seventh Report of Session 2012 13 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-30 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Insolvency Service written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-06 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has today published a report containing a number of conclusions and recommendations resulting from its inquiry into the Insolvency Service, including: (i) without an increase in resources the investigations unit will be unable to increase the number of cases it can prosecute which will further undermine stakeholder confidence; (ii) there is a risk that further reductions in annual running costs and staff may put undue pressure on the Insolvency Service to deliver; (iii) it is clear from the evidence that the fee-generated income model for the Official Receiver Service is unreliable in the current economic climate (iv) issues remain with pre-pack administration, which need to be addressed; (v) given the level of debt relief they can receive, it would not be unreasonable to increase the £525 upfront fee that individual debtor bankrupts have to pay. The Committee welcomes the news that the regulators and the insolvency industry have been working together to create common regulatory standards across the profession. The creation of a single gateway for complaints, common standards and a common appeals process would be an important step in this regard. The Service should be required to publish an annual report that charts progress in this area.

Download or read book The Economic Constitution written by Tony Prosser and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-03-13 with total page 1187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been little analysis of the constitutional framework for management of the UK economy, either in constitutional law or regulatory studies. This is in contrast to many other countries where the concept of an 'economic constitution' is well established, as it is in the law of the European Union. Given the extensive role of the state in attempting to resolve recent financial crises in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, it is particularly important to develop such an analysis. This book sets out different meanings of an economic constitution, and applies them to key areas of economic management, including taxation and public borrowing, the management of public spending, (including the Spending Review), monetary policy, financial services regulation, industrial policy (including state shareholdings) and government contracting. It analyses the key institutions involved such as the Treasury and the Bank of England, also including a number of less well-known bodies such as the Office for Budget Responsibility. There is also coverage of the international context in which these institutions operate especially the European Union and the World Trade Organisation. It thus provides an account of the public law applying to economic management in the UK. This book also adopts a critical approach, assessing the degree to which there is coherence in the arrangements for economic management, the degree to which economic policy-making is constrained by constitutional norms, and the degree to which economic management is subject to deliberation and accountability through Parliament, the courts and other institutions.

Download or read book House of Commons Treasury Committee Money Advice Service HC 457 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Money Advice Service is not currently fit for purpose. The Committee considered whether to recommend that the MAS be scrapped completely but given that the Treasury had already announced its intention to conduct a review of the MAS they granted a stay of execution. They asked the Government to expedite this review and recommended that it should be independent, rather than led by the Treasury. The review must assess whether the MAS should continue to exist and, if so, how it can overcome the serious problems discussed. The current management of the MAS should also explain how they are going to act on the concerns identified. The independent review should seek to answer the following questions: Should the Money Advice Service-or something like it-exist as a statutory organisation? If so, what should the role and strategy of such a body be? Should it be a co-ordinator, commissioner or direct provider of advice? What channels should it use? If not, should the FCA take responsibility for the objectives of the Service? Does the FCA need greater statutory powers to hold the Money Advice Service to account? What are the views of other bodies in this sector about the way in which the Money Advice Service is now engaging with them? To what extent does the work of the Money Advice Service unnecessarily duplicate existing provision? What should the role of the Service be in each of the areas in which it operates? Is the remuneration of the Service's senior staff set at an appropriate level?

Download or read book Adult apprenticeships written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Apprenticeship Programme expanded by 140 per cent between the 2006/07 and 2010/11 academic years. Apprentices aged over 25 account for 68 per cent of this increase. Most of the increase in the programme has been in just 10 apprenticeship occupations. Apprentices and inspectors are generally positive about the quality of apprenticeships, with 91 per cent of apprentices satisfied with their training; but the rapid expansion of the programme brings risks that need to be managed. One concern is that in 2010/11, 19 per cent (34,600) of apprenticeships lasted less than six months, when most are expected to last at least a year. Advanced apprenticeships yield higher returns than intermediate apprenticeships: spending on adult apprenticeships overall could be producing an economic return of £18 for every £1 of public spending. Most apprenticeships in England, though, are at a lower level than those offered by other countries. The Apprenticeship Programme is well coordinated and is better managed than a previous government programme, Train to Gain, for example by maintaining a central register of approved providers, with a single national contract and account manager for each. The rates paid to training providers by the Skills Funding Agency are not based on sufficiently robust information on the cost of the training provision, and so the Agency and National Apprenticeship Service do not know the extent to which providers may be earning surpluses or incurring losses on some types of apprenticeship. Furthermore, some employers are not paying the expected contribution towards training providers' costs.

Download or read book Financial management report written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-12 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the spending review, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is targeting a 27 per cent reduction, after inflation, in core resources between 2010-11 and 2014-15. However, this does not take account of a near doubling in student loan payments arising from the higher education reforms, much of which the Department expects will be repaid sometime after 2014-15. Once these are included, the Department's total spending is forecast to reduce by 6 per cent, after inflation, during the four year period. The Department is also working on a number of other reforms associated with the settlement, including attracting private investment into Royal Mail, setting up the Green Investment Bank by September 2012, and providing £1.3 billion to modernise the Post Office network. The Department has worked hard over the last 18 months to improve its financial management, and current practices have enabled it to keep its day-to-day financial management on track. However, the Department recognises that its current financial management capacity and skills will not be sufficient if it is to manage the substantial challenges ahead. It is implementing a number of change programmes aimed at integrating financial management across the department and its partner organisations. The outcomes of this are as yet unclear and the NAO has identified key areas for action. These include improving the quality of information available to support decision-making, strengthening cross-department arrangements for scrutinising investment proposals, and improving sponsorship of partner organisations.

Download or read book Financial management in the Home Office written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Home Office has made good progress in improving its financial management since 2009 when the National Audit Office last evaluated its financial capability. However, while financial control is good, the Home Office could do more to integrate its financial and operational planning and thereby understand better the link between resources and performance. In addition, many of the strengths which the Department demonstrates in its core business are much less apparent in its 'change programmes'. The Department is starting to benefit from its new governance structures but there still challenges. The Department has clear plans to reduce costs in its core activities but business areas have not fully considered efficiency and effectiveness when evaluating where cuts should be made. The Department will need to achieve further savings of £1.1 billion a year by 2014-15 but a third of this sum remains uncertain. Reductions in funding from the Home Office mean that police forces must make savings worth around £1.5 billion by 2014-15 through efficiency improvements; but, in 2011, around two-thirds of forces had shortfalls in their cost reduction plans, amounting to £500 million in total. The Department will shortly be in a position to confirm how far this savings gap has been covered in the plans. There are risks to the successful delivery of the Department's change programmes, specifically in respect of the development of the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the phasing out of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA)

Download or read book National Audit Office Department for Communities and Local Government Department for Business Innovation and Skills Funding and Structures for Local Economic Growth HC 542 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-06 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2010, the Government set out a new approach for local economic growth, in the White Paper Local growth: realising every place's potential. This involved the closure of the Regional Development Agencies and their replacement with new local growth organizations and funds, such as Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Regional Growth Fund. Three years on from this initial announcement, the new Local Enterprise Partnerships and Enterprise Zones are taking shape. However, Local Enterprise Partnerships are making progress at different rates. The Growing Places Fund, Enterprise Zones and the Regional Growth Fund have also been slow to create jobs and face a significant challenge to produce the number of jobs expected. The estimate of jobs to be created by Enterprise Zones by 2015 has dropped from 54,000 to between 6,000 and 18,000. There is also no plan to measure outcomes or evaluate performance comparably across the range of different local growth programmes. Departments cannot therefore show value for money across the programme of local growth initiatives or be sure about where to direct their resources. The new local programmes were not established in time to avoid a significant dip in local growth funds and jobs created. Direct central government spending on local economic growth through the initiatives fell from £1,461 million in 2010-11 to £273 million in 2012-13, but will rise to £1,714 million in 2014-15. Central government needs to plan such reorganizations more effectively, to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place both centrally and locally to oversee initiatives and that accountability is clear