Recommendations & Conclusions
16 items
2
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
Poor design and testing of OSCAR II caused significant delays to the Whole of Government Accounts. In July 2020 the Treasury replaced its now obsolete IT system with a new system, OSCAR II, used for collecting and consolidating data from component bodies into the WGA. This update was expected to …
Government response. The Treasury has undertaken a number of lessons learned exercises, including engaging the Government Internal Audit Agency to support this work and changed its practices for project managing changes to the system.
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
Failures in the local audit market in England and Wales are resulting in poorer quality data for Central Government to use in oversight, and in preparing the Whole of Government Accounts. Before the pandemic, the Local Government audit sector was already under strain, with widespread delays to statutory audits. The …
Government response. The Treasury will centrally carry out assurance work over data submissions that are below the audit threshold (across all sectors) and is obtaining further specialist assurance advice on how to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the assurance procedures for …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
Inconsistent presentation of data between years, and lack of reflection of current Government policies and economic context, reduce the usability of the Whole of Government Accounts. The 2019–20 WGA presented some important trend analysis within the Performance Report; an aspect of the WGA reporting that we welcome. However, in some …
Government response. The government agrees to ensure that analysis in the WGA supports comparability and reflects developments since the reporting date, by building on trend data, reflecting topical interests, following best practices in data presentation, and including commentary to reflect developments in …
HM Treasury
10
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
In July 2020 the Treasury launched its new financial IT system, OSCAR II, for use in preparing the WGA. OSCAR II replaced the previous, obsolete system and was designed to support, amongst other functions: the collection and consolidation of data from component bodies into the WGA; holding, storing and updating …
Government response. The government agrees to undertake a lessons-learnt exercise addressing the root causes of poor design specification and testing of OSCAR II, and ensure identified improvements are implemented when applying future system changes.
HM Treasury
11
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
However, during the implementation of OSCAR II, a number of significant problems arose. The problems, which were not localised but were encountered across the system’s different functionalities, included: issues faced by component bodies when attempting to submit their data to the system, in some cases requiring system changes to be …
Government response. The Treasury has undertaken a number of lessons learned exercises, including engaging the Government Internal Audit Agency to support this work, and is applying the lessons learned in deciding on the future support and development arrangements for the system.
HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
The Treasury has told us that that all known issues with OSCAR II have now been resolved as they move onto the production of the 2020–21 WGA. However, the Treasury informed us that it anticipates that there are likely to be some new issues that will yet arise. The system …
Government response. The Treasury has changed its practices for project managing changes to the OSCAR II system and is negotiating a new plan with Deloitte. They are applying lessons learned in deciding on future support arrangements, with the existing contract due to …
HM Treasury
13
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
The Local Government audit sector in England and Wales has been under significant strain for a number of years. There is a shortage of auditors with the knowledge and experience to deliver, within the expected timeframes, the high-quality audits required for the increasingly complex structures and transactions within these accounts. …
Government response. The Treasury will centrally carry out assurance work over WGA data submissions that are below the audit threshold and is obtaining further specialist assurance advice on how to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the assurance procedures for WGA.
HM Treasury
14
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
The Treasury explained that the decision was made to prepare the WGA using unaudited data from these bodies as a trade-off between timeliness and completeness. The Treasury told us that it waited for the audits of all the largest bodies that feed into the WGA to be complete but decided …
Government response. The government agrees to ensure the data in OSCAR II will remain of sufficient quality by centrally carrying out assurance work over data submissions that are below the audit threshold and by obtaining further specialist assurance advice on how to …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
This problem is expected to escalate further as the Treasury look towards the 2020– 21 WGA. The proportion of 2020–21 Local Government audits that had been completed by the target date of 20 September 2021 dropped again from 45% in 2019–20 to just 9%.43 In advance of the 2020–21 WGA …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation to ensure the data in OSCAR II will remain of sufficient quality. They state WGA data submissions are prepared based on component entity’s audited accounts where published, and entities above a certain size are …
HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
There are several factors that contribute to maximising the usability of the WGA for the public and other stakeholders. We discussed with the Treasury how creating successive sets of accounts which are presented in a consistent and comparable way enables users to analyse data and trends across several years. This …
Government response. The government agrees to ensure that analysis in the WGA supports comparability and reflects developments since the reporting date such as the impact of high inflation. They will build on the existing 5-year trend data and ensure comparative data is …
HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
In the 2019–20 WGA, the Treasury presented some important trend analysis within the Performance Report on income and expenditure, as well as assets and liabilities.47 This is an aspect of the WGA reporting that we welcome as an incredibly useful aspect of what the WGA is geared towards. However, we …
Government response. The Treasury will build on the WGA performance report to ensure comparative data is presented as effectively as possible, to enhance the useability of the accounts, and provide clear prior year data to aid comparability where presentational changes are made.
HM Treasury
18
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
Another factor to consider in elevating the usability of the WGA is the way in which current Government policies and economic context are reflected in its reporting; currently such context is lacking. The Treasury has invited our thoughts on how value could be added to the WGA and the Performance …
Government response. The Treasury will build on the WGA performance report to ensure comparative data is presented as effectively as possible, to enhance the useability of the accounts, and provide clear prior year data to aid comparability where presentational changes are made.
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
The Treasury explained to us how the WGA plays a crucial role in enhancing the fiscal transparency of the public sector, giving a more complete and overarching view of government spending and the public financial structure that exists elsewhere. This in turn allows, over the years, for identification of major …
Government response. The government agrees to continue improving the content of the WGA, including spending on net zero, government emissions, fraud across government, long term costs of COVID interventions and inclusion of the equivalent of a viability statement, with a target implementation …
HM Treasury
20
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
The Treasury expressed its understanding of how the issues that are of greatest interest to users of the WGA, including the Committee, evolve over time. The Treasury told us that where users of the WGA continue to rely on the document as a key source of information on an issue, …
Government response. The government agrees to continue improving the content of the WGA, including spending on net zero, government emissions, fraud across government, long term costs of COVID interventions and inclusion of the equivalent of a viability statement, with a target implementation …
HM Treasury
21
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
The Treasury currently uses the NAO’s COVID-19 Cost Tracker to provide data for its reporting on COVID-19 in the WGA. However, the NAO is set to cease publishing this information in the near future and it is therefore important that the Treasury should not depend solely on the NAO but …
Government response. HM Treasury will continue to improve the content of WGA, to ensure it brings together the best available published information on topics of interest, incorporating public updates into the WGA performance report.
HM Treasury
22
Recommendation
Twentieth Report - Whole of Government …
Accepted
Improvements to the transparency of information in the WGA would also be achieved through more detailed narrative in certain areas. The asset and liability split reported in the WGA shows total assets of £2,138.5 billion and total liabilities of £4,972.7 billion.68 In a commercial organisation this would indicate that it …
Government response. HM Treasury will continue to improve the content of WGA, to ensure it brings together the best available published information on topics of interest, incorporating public updates into the WGA performance report.
HM Treasury