Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 24
24
Accepted
HMRC lacks detail on how policy lessons are learned or captured for future schemes
Conclusion
HMRC told us that from a policy perspective it learns lessons from previous work and creates ‘playbooks’ for future policies. While we are glad to hear that HMRC does this, we expressed concern that it is in a position to offer advice to ministers only on how to implement a scheme similar to Child Trust Funds, rather than on whether the 30 Q 24; C&AG’s Report, para 3.3 31 Q 30; C&AG’s Report, para 4.2 32 Qq 30–33; C&AG’s Report, para 3.5 33 Qq 44, 85; C&AG’s Report, para 10 34 Qq 44, 93; C&AG’s Report, para 4.8 35 Qq 64–65, 86 36 Q 65 Child Trust Funds 15 evidence suggests such a scheme would be an effective use of taxpayers’ money.37 HMRC told us that government has learnt lessons about implementing a universal scheme from the experience of Child Trust Funds, including about the importance of partnerships, and about how to approach groups with very different levels of engagement. However, it provided no detail of how those lessons have been learnt or where that learning has been captured.38
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and commits to formalising a detailed plan for evaluation by Winter 2023 (targeting Summer 2025 implementation). This commitment to evaluation, including allowing external researchers access to data, aims to capture lessons and inform future policy, implicitly addressing concerns about the scope of HMRC's advice and how learning is captured.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target Implementation date: Summer 2025 6.2 HMRC is committed to evaluation. The evaluation framework was published in 2021 and sets out HMRC’s approach to achieving good quality monitoring and evaluations of its policies in line with government good practice. HMRC has committed to publishing its external research programmes in the HMRC annual report and accounts and has made the same commitment for evaluation. A list and brief description of HMRC’s research reports, and the final research report, is available on GOV.UK. HMRC also publishes a list of HMRC planned evaluation publications. 6.3 Any evaluation plan, however, needs to be carefully considered and proportionate recognising that resources are limited. The CTF is an intervention that has been discontinued and is not currently part of the policy framework. While there are undoubtedly some lessons that can be learned, any evaluation plan will need to be mindful of this wider context. A more detailed plan for evaluation will be formalised in Winter 2023. 6.4 In addition, evaluation and similar analysis are not solely the purview of Government. HMRC also seeks to be open and pro-active in the way it manages its relationships with external stakeholders such as academics and external researchers, including those researching CTFs, and permits access to HMRC data via the HMRC Datalab.