Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Transparency offers significant benefits for accountability, public engagement, and confidence in major programmes.
Conclusion
This Committee has often set out the significant benefits of transparency for supporting accountability over decision-making, alongside updating and engaging Parliament and the public on progress across critical major programmes. Transparency will also be critical for Parliament and the public to gain confidence in a programme and its leadership, as endorsed by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, which is the government’s major projects centre of expertise.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees on the importance of transparency and details ongoing efforts, including the upcoming annual progress report, regular quarterly reports, published meeting agendas/minutes, and the publication of Independent Advice and Assurance Panel reports.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Clerk of the House, Clerk of the Parliaments, and Client Team agree with the Committee’s recommendations. First bullet – annual performance report Previous commitments made to the Committee are already being fulfilled and, specifically, the first R&R annual progress report from the House Administrations is due to be published before summer recess 2023. In addition to the annual progress report, the Programme publishes quarterly reports providing updates on the Programme and setting out progress against key milestones. The latest quarterly report was published on the R&R Programme Board’s website in June. The R&R Client and Programme Boards also publish meeting agendas, and the Formal Minutes for each meeting, on their respective websites, for transparency purposes. The Clerk of the House and the Clerk of the Parliaments have previously committed to publishing the outcomes of any future work by the Independent Advice and Assurance Panel (IAAP) which they commission, subject to the agreement of the Commissions acting as the Client Board. The first IAAP report was published in June 2022 as an appendix to the Joint Commissions’ Report Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster – a new mandate. The latest IAAP report, undertaken in February, was published on the Programme Board’s website in June 2023.