Download or read book Treasury minutes on the twenty seventh to the thirty fourth the thirty sixth to the fortieth and the forty third to the forty fifth reports from the Committee of Public Accounts 2006 2007 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-11 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Committee of Public Accounts treasury minutes are on the following reports: HCP 113, 06/07, 27th report (ISBN 9780215034311); HCP 179, 06/07, 28th report (ISBN 9780215034373); HCP 142, 06/07, 29th report (ISBN 9780215034304); HCP 189, 06/07, 30th report (ISBN 9780215034489); HCP 309, 06/07, 31st report (ISBN 9780215034496); HCP 91, 06/07, 32nd report (ISBN 9780215034571); HCP 275, 06/07 33rd report (ISBN 9780215034786); HCP 43, 06/07, 34th report (ISBN 9780215034830); HCP 729, 06/07, 36th report (ISBN 9780215034823); HCP 812, 06/07, 37th report (ISBN 9780215034878); HCP 261, 06/07, 38th report (ISBN 9780215034991); HCP 377, 06/07, 39th report (ISBN 9780215034922); HCP 368, 06/07, 40th report (ISBN 9780215035066); HCP 892, 06/07, 43rd report (ISBN 9780215035172); HCP 246, 06/07, 44th report (ISBN 9780215035271); HCP 250, 06/07, 45th report (ISBN 9780215035387)
Download or read book HMRC written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-18 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2011-12, 20 million phone calls to HMRC were not answered. It cost the callers £136 million while they waited to speak to an adviser. And, against its target of responding to 80% of letters within 15 days, the department managed to reply to just 66%. Officials are beginning to realize that good customer service lies at the heart of any strategy to maximize revenues while cutting costs. Callers will no longer be forced to use the more expensive 0845 numbers. Other planned changes include the resolution of more queries first time and a call-back service where this is not possible. However, HMRC's new target of answering 80% of calls within five minutes is still woefully short of the industry standard of answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds. Just how the department is going to improve standards of customer service, given the prospect of its having fewer staff and receiving a higher volume of calls, is open to question. HMRC plans to cut the number of customer-facing staff by a third by 2015. At the same time, the stresses associated with introducing the Real Time Information System, Universal Credit and changes to child benefit are likely to drive up the number of phone calls to the department. HMRC is also to close all of its 281 enquiry centres which give face-to-face advice to customers. HMRC considers that it will be able to improve service standards by using its staff more flexibly. It may need to put in additional resources, though, to avoid the kind of plummeting performance we have seen in the past
Download or read book Sessional Papers written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tax credits written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-05-09 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current tax credit system was introduced in April 2003 with the aim of helping families with children and working people on low incomes. However it suffers from the highest rate of error and fraud in government. This is the Committee's fourth report on the system. It concludes that the cost in terms of the unforeseen level of overpayments and the scale of error and fraud continues to be significant and beyond the levels Parliament was lead to expect. The Department is now taking steps to reduce the level of overpayment but does not yet have an adequate response for error and fraud.
Download or read book Improving Poorly Performing Schools 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 2006 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2004-05, approximately £837 million was spent in England on a range of national programmes to help address problems in schools that were failing or at risk of failing to provide an acceptable standard of education for their pupils. Following on from a NAO report (HC 679, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936633) published in January 2006, the Committee's report examines the activities of the DfES and Ofsted to identify and deal with poorly performing schools, to strengthen school leadership and to develop simpler relationships with schools. Findings include that, although the number of poorly performing schools has been reducing, there are still around 1,500 in England that are under-performing. Improvements in data on secondary school performance has helped to identify schools in decline at an earlier stage so that they can benefit from increased support, and similar improvement needs to be done at primary school level. The system of shorter Ofsted inspections, based on school self-evaluation of performance, may be appropriate for the majority of schools, but some schools are not evaluating themselves effectively and incentives needs to be created to help achieve this. School leadership is essential to achieving and maintaining improvements, and Ofsted reports need to diagnose any leadership problems in failing schools explicitly. Local authorities and other schools are important sources of support for struggling schools and there should be greater opportunities for schools to collaborate and share good practice.
Download or read book Alexander Hamilton s Famous Report on Manufactures written by United States. Department of the Treasury and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 1324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Increased Resources to Improve Public Services written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 2002, the Government announced a public expenditure increase of £61 billion over three years, to be targeted at improving key public services. The three largest recipients of the extra funding were the Department for Education and Skills, the Department of Health and the Department for Transport. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 234, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102927103) published in January 2004, the Committee's report examines how these departments are using their extra resources, focusing on three main issues: the complexity of the service deliver chain, how they can secure further improvements in service quality, and performance monitoring and benchmarking. Conclusions reached include that, complex delivery chains and financing mechanisms need to be simplified, and a direct link established between funding and specific targets for service improvements. As all three departments deliver services indirectly through a network of partners and contractors, they need to ensure delivery partners have sufficient capability and capacity to deliver services effectively. Departments should also share information on their plans to increase delivery capacity more widely among key suppliers.
Download or read book Recovery of Debt by the Inland Revenue Forty Ninth Report of Session 2003 04 Report Together with Formal Minutes Oral and Written Evidence written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book HC 593 Whistleblowing written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whistleblowing is an important source of intelligence to help government identify wrongdoing and risks to public service delivery. But many concerns go unreported, and the intelligence that does exist is not routinely collected and shared. It is essential that employees have trust in the system for handling whistleblowers, and confidence that they will be taken seriously, protected and supported by their organisations if they blow the whistle. A positive approach to whistleblowing should exist wherever the taxpayer's pound is spent, in private and non-statutory bodies as well as public authorities. Far too often whistleblowers have been shockingly treated, and whistleblowers who have come forward have had to show remarkable bravery. Departments' own attempts at changing whistleblowing policy and processes for the better have not been successful in modifying a bullying culture, or in combating unacceptable behaviour, such as harassment of whistleblowers, within their organisations. The lack of cross-government leadership on whistleblowing has resulted in an inconsistent approach across departments. Departments must ensure that whistleblowers are protected, supported and have their welfare monitored. There should be timely reporting back to whistleblowers on how their concerns have been addressed. Compromise agreements should not be used to buy silence from whistleblowers and instead should be subject to approval by the Cabinet Office. All government employees should be provided with a route map that shows how to report issues internally and externally. Private and third sector contractors to the public sector must also be obliged to have strong and effective whistleblowing policies in place.
Download or read book Protecting England and Wales from Plant Pests and Diseases written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 1186, session 2002-03; ISBN 0102923590) published in October 2003, the Committee's report focuses on the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in trying to prevent plant pests and diseases from entering the country and in managing and preventing the spread of outbreaks when they occur. The main impacts from plant pests and diseases are economic ones, and DEFRA spends £8 million each year on import controls and a further £14 million researching the diagnosis and control of pests. Its work is subject to two main international agreements, as well as WTO requirements that stipulate import controls must have a scientific basis and must not be used as a barrier to trade. Recommendations include that DEFRA should: reassess current inspection targets using cost-benefit analyses; establish a peer review system to provide assurance on the quality of inspections; work with industry and supermarkets to improve food labelling to raise consumer awareness of the UK's standards for plant health; address the inconsistencies in current farmer compensation arrangements and explore the feasibility of alternatives such as insurance or levy schemes.
Download or read book Ministry of Defence Major Projects Report 2003 Forty Third Report of Session 2003 04 Report Together with Formal Minutes Oral and Written Evidence written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Major Projects Report 2003 provides information on progress made by the Ministry of Defence in procuring major defence equipment against cost, time and technical performance targets. It covers 30 projects split, according to Smart Acquisition principles, between the 20 largest projects on which the main investment decision has been taken, and the 10 largest projects yet to reach that point. For the 20 largest projects, costs are forecast to have increased by £3.1 billion in the last year, and are now 6.1 per cent over their approved costs. Difficulties on four older projects (which predate the introduction of Smart Acquisition) account for the majority of cost and time overruns. Following on from a NAO report on this topic (HCP 195, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102926581) published in January 2004, the Committee's report examines four main issues: the impact of the large cost overruns and delays; departmental risk management; ways of developing a more constructive relationship between the Department and industry; and lessons that need to be learned to avoid such poor procurement performance being repeated in future.
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 Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1833 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book HC 393 HM Revenue Customs performance in 2014 15 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We recognise the achievement of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in increasing the amount of tax collected while also reducing its running costs over the last 5 years. However, we are concerned that it has made little or no progress on a number of important issues that this Committee has raised before. Despite this Committee's previous recommendations, HMRC still does not report on how much cash was received as a result of its compliance work or on the scale of aggressive tax avoidance which exploits loopholes in the law. HMRC also continues to avoid publishing information on the scale and nature of tax reliefs that would assist Parliamentary oversight of this area of the tax system. The standard of customer service also remains unacceptable. We are particularly disappointed by HMRC's failure in this area given that people are more likely to pay the right tax when they find HMRC easy to deal with. We also remain extremely concerned that HMRC's work has led to too few prosecutions of individuals for tax evasion and that there is, therefore, no credible punishment to deter people from breaking the law in this manner.
Download or read book The Government s Expenditure Plans written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 2004 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation TELIC was the UK's contribution to the Coalition effort to remove Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in Spring 2003. This was the UK's largest military operation since the 1990-91 Gulf War, involving the deployment of 46,000 personnel from all three armed services, 19 warships, 15,000 vehicles and 115 aircraft, as well as support from large numbers of Service personnel, civilians and contractors in the UK and elsewhere. Following on from a National Audit Office report (HCP 60, session 2003-04; ISBN 0102926565) published in December 2003, the Committee's report focuses on four main issues: the Ministry of Defence's ability to deploy forces at short notice; logistics and shortages of equipment at the front line; the consignment tracking system; and the Department's process of identifying and implementing lessons. Findings include i) that front line equipment shortages, such as lack of combat body armour and nuclear, biological and chemical detection/protection equipment, exposed troops to increased risks; ii) despite significant investment, the MoD still lacks a credible consignment tracking system; iii) the planning and handing over of responsibilities to civilian agencies should have been better managed; and iv) there are fundamental shortcomings in the MoD's ability to learn and act upon lessons from previous experience.
