Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Acknowledged
IPA's assurance work has become more rigorous, with refreshed tools and trained reviewers.
Conclusion
The IPA suggested that its assurance work has become much more rigorous – it has republished the assurance workbooks it uses to undertake reviews; refreshed its pool of available independent reviewers; and started to provide them with training.33 For the 100 programmes it has the capacity to support, the IPA told us it gets more deeply involved as early as it can to help avoid issues that can lead to a programme failing later. As part of this it will look at, for example, whether there is a robust schedule, a stakeholder alignment plan, and a robust cost estimate.34
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the committee's observations about the IPA's assurance work by noting that the IPA has recently updated its gate review and assurance mechanisms and is strengthening the ‘response to red’ process for timely interventions.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
2.4 The IPA has also recently updated its gate review and assurance mechanisms and is working to strengthen the ‘response to red’ process in conjunction with HM Treasury. This enables more timely and targeted interventions and support to be provided to projects and programmes. During the ‘response to red process’ it is expected that some activity will pause to allow greater focus on remedial actions, which will improve deliverability.