Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Ensure 2022-23 annual report clearly documents progress against strategic priorities
Recommendation
The Department’s performance reporting in its annual report and accounts does not allow Parliament and the public to monitor progress towards its strategic priorities. The Department’s activities are wide-ranging, and it told us it has an ever-growing set of delivery obligations. It believes its complexity, and broad and diverse remit make it challenging to set out its performance. However, complexity is not a reason to avoid transparency reporting obligations. Departments had outcome delivery plans (ODPs) for 2021–22 which set out priorities and associated metrics, and HM Treasury expects departments to report publicly on the delivery of their ODPs in their annual reports and accounts. The Department told us that it regularly reports its ODP performance metrics internally within government; however, the Department in its Annual Report and Accounts presented outcome metrics that appeared, in some cases, disconnected from the accompanying narrative. This not only diminishes the usefulness to the reader in assessing progress towards Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Annual Report and Accounts 2021–22 7 achieving outcomes, it also risks giving the impression that the Department is including such metrics to meet minimum compliance requirements rather than to aid understanding or support transparency and accountability. Recommendation 4: In its Treasury Minute response, The Department, should set out what steps it has taken to ensure that performance reporting in its 2022–23 annual report and accounts will clearly and transparently document its progress against its strategic priorities.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and will report against SR21 metrics in the 2022-23 Annual Report and Accounts, providing more contextual information around metrics. It will also review best practice to include more graphical presentation for user-friendliness.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The government is grateful for the Committee’s offer of support and looks forward to engaging with the Committee around the 2022-23 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts. These will be the final Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) accounts, though this should influence successor departments going forward. The performance report chapter of the BEIS Annual Report and Accounts sets out BEIS’ objectives and priorities and gives information on past performance, including selected metrics, sometimes known as key performance indicators (consistent with the planned objectives and measures previously published in Single Departmental Plans). The metrics included in the 2021-22 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts were reported on the SR20 set of metrics, and not the SR21 set of metrics. In the 2022-23 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts, the Government will report against SR21 metrics which are a more exhaustive and detailed list of objectives and priorities. In the 2022-23 BEIS Annual Report and Accounts, the government is looking to provide more contextual information around metrics that it publishes with partner organisations. There are four priority outcomes with eighteen metrics. These involve several partner departments as well as the Office of National Statistics and Bank of England. This means the government will look to draw on their experience to update improve the narrative and context around the position and developments. To make performance reporting more user friendly for readers the government will review best practice again with the intention to include more graphical presentation to make the document simpler and highlight the spend involved not just across what was BEIS but also in those arm’s-length bodies which are consolidated.