Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Acknowledged
Department lacks routine long-term monitoring and evaluation for inward investment project outcomes.
Conclusion
The Department does not routinely monitor what outcomes have been achieved, whether they are higher or lower than forecast, or whether investments have led to any economic disbenefits.27 We asked the Department how many of the jobs it forecasts at the outset are still there five years later. The Department told us that it does not have a long-term evaluation of individual projects in place. It said that it needed to balance the costs involved in following up prior-year projects. However, it agreed that the question of evaluating its long-term impact over five to ten years was a good one which it should look into.28 19 Qq 58–61 20 Q 61 21 C&AG’s Report, para 3.14, Figure 1 22 Letter to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from Gareth Davies, DBT Permanent Secretary, 20 March 2023 23 Q 27 24 Q 34; C&AG’s Report, para 3.14 25 Qq 16–17, 34 26 Letter to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from Gareth Davies, DBT Permanent Secretary, 20 March 2023 27 C&AG’s Report, para 12 28 Qq 23–25 12 Supporting investment into the UK Digital capacity
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the observation that long-term outcomes are not routinely monitored. It acknowledges issues with data quality in estimating economic benefits and commits to seeking improvements in its ways of working in this area.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: June 2024 2.2 The department’s investment operations are based on new and existing relationships with multi-national companies. Recognising that it is the companies themselves that make the decisions rather than the department directly, the department’s main focus is on landing, retaining and expanding their UK presence. 2.3 The Gross Value Add (GVA) methodology is applied to estimate the economic benefits of the department assisted Foreign Direct Investment. Pipeline data – the data reflecting the investment projects in progress – is used to estimate outcome of the department’s investment work. However, specific details relating to the data employed to estimate economic impact is often missing early on, making it harder to accurately create performance expectations, and later performance evaluation, with a high degree of precision. However, the department welcomes the challenge to improve data quality and will seek to improve the department’s ways of working in this area.