Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 29
29
Paragraph: 126
Good and transparent data is vital for parliamentary and public scrutiny of major projects.
Conclusion
Good and transparent data is vital for parliamentary and public scrutiny of major projects. The Committee has seen examples of projects which have gone off the rails late, having shown little or no sign of difficulty through reported data. The Committee also notes that the standalone data published in IPA reports and in Departmental annual reports and accounts do not enable individuals to know whether projects are in line with what the public was promised when projects were devised.
Paragraph Reference:
126
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The UK Government is world leading in the amount and detail of the data that is published about major projects, in addition to the annual report the IPA publishes further specific information on all GMPP projects3 including, departmental narratives on the whole 3 Annual Report on Major Projects 2019 to 2020, consolidated data and narratives life costs, schedules (including any deviations from the planned schedule) and delivery confidence assessment’s over time. The IPA encourages departments to publish their own data and provide information about their major projects to encourage transparency, and are taking steps to look into more robust and expeditious publishing of data. Further, departments report to Parliament in a variety of different ways, from parliamentary questions to submitting reports to subject select committees as well as departmental annual reports and accounts.