Download or read book Draft Local Audit Bill written by Great Britain: Department for Communities and Local Government and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-06 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Draft Local Audit Bill, sets out the government's vision for the future of local audit. It has been designed to implement the government's commitment to disband the Audit Commission and re-focus audit on helping local people hold their councils and other local public bodies to account for local spending decisions. The aim of this new draft bill is to develop a locally focused audit regime, but one still retaining a high quality of audit of local government spending. The government views the current audit arrangements for local public bodies as inefficient and unnecessarily centralised, which has created a system of weak cost incentives and therefore become too focused on reporting to central government and not local people. The new audit framework will also allow bodies to appoint their own auditors from an open and competitive market. The Bill also gives new responsibilities to the Financial Reporting Council, which will act as the overall regulator for auditors; the National Audit Office, which will set the code of audit practice; and the professional audit bodies will also have a role in regulating and monitoring audits.

Download or read book Fair Society Healthy Lives written by Michael Marmot and published by Olschki. This book was released on 2013 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book PFI in housing written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-06-25 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report, from the National Audit Office (HCP 71, session 2010-11, ISBN 9780102965285), looks at PFI in Housing. The use of PFI by local authorities to improve housing, usually in areas with a high need for housing and where the stock condition is particularly poor, has had a measure of success, but risks to value for money of the programme have not been managed. In the context of this programme, PFI has been a flexible and useful funding route for local authorities to improve existing housing and build new stock. However, the majority of projects required significant increases in central funding prior to contract signature and all have suffered delays. Twenty one of the 25 projects which have been signed to date have experienced cost increases, with 12 of these over 100 per cent. All signed projects, for which the NAO was able to obtain data, were delayed, on average by 2 years and 6 months. For early projects this was partly because PFI was new to the housing sector and the Department for Communities and Local Government had to develop its understanding of stock condition issues. Also, the Department's management for early projects was also weak and under-resourced. While the capital cost of PFI housing projects is similar to other developments, the Department's evaluation to date has not taken account of the full costs. Procurement also tends to take more time, which can increase procurement and tender costs for local authorities and bidders.

Download or read book Reducing costs in the Department for Transport written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-12-14 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2010 spending review set a transport budget that is 15 per cent lower in 2014-15 compared with 2010-11. All areas of spending are affected by reductions, but the Highways Agency sees the biggest reduction, with a budget falling from £3.2 billion in 2010-11 to £2.1 billion in 2014-15. The Department felt constrained in altering some areas of spending, most significantly excluding from consideration the current grant to Network Rail. In a sample of 73 per cent of the Department's budget, over half of the reductions, compared to planned spending, are the result of cuts, delays to new investment or higher fares rather than new approaches to delivering the same services for less. The Department had a good understanding of the relationship between costs and benefits regarding specific transport projects such as Crossrail and national road schemes. Information was less good in other areas, the weakest being in rail. The Department commissioned work to improve its information on the costs and benefits from grants to Transport for London and local authorities. There is a risk now that a proportion of the budget reductions in road maintenance and rail budgets may not be financially sustainable. Budget reductions of £1.23 billion will be made to national and local road maintenance; however, this includes £223 million of unspecified efficiencies, risking deterioration in road quality and higher long term costs to the Department or local authorities. One year after the spending review, it is too early to assess with confidence progress on the major cost reduction measures, as most of the critical milestones against which progress can be judged lie ahead

Download or read book Prison Safety and Reform written by Great Britain: Ministry of Justice and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dated November 2016. Print and web pdfs available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications Web ISBN=9781474138369

Download or read book House of Commons Procedure and Practice written by Canada. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 1216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference book is primarily a procedural work which examines the many forms, customs, and practices which have been developed and established for the House of Commons since Confederation in 1867. It provides a distinctive Canadian perspective in describing procedure in the House up to the end of the first session of the 36th Parliament in Sept. 1999. The material is presented with full commentary on the historical circumstances which have shaped the current approach to parliamentary business. Key Speaker's rulings and statements are also documented and the considerable body of practice, interpretation, and precedents unique to the Canadian House of Commons is amply illustrated. Chapters of the book cover the following: parliamentary institutions; parliaments and ministries; privileges and immunities; the House and its Members; parliamentary procedure; the physical & administrative setting; the Speaker & other presiding officers; the parliamentary cycle; sittings of the House; the daily program; oral & written questions; the process of debate; rules of order & decorum; the curtailment of debate; special debates; the legislative process; delegated legislation; financial procedures; committees of the whole House; committees; private Members' business; public petitions; private bills practice; and the parliamentary record. Includes index.

Download or read book Managing Public Money written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by Stationery Office Books (TSO). This book was released on 2007 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dated October 2007. The publication is effective from October 2007, when it replaces "Government accounting". Annexes to this document may be viewed at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk