Recommendation 11

The lack of summary AO assessments being published remains a real concern.31 HM Treasury said that there can be practical reasons why summary AO assessments take longer to publish – for example, because the department concerned is in the middle of a commercial negotiation or is engaging with the market. It recognised that it had to do more, through training for example, to create a culture where people see the benefits and value of completing an assessment .32 Responding to the NAO’s report, HM Treasury wrote to all accounting officers to emphasise that an AO assessment reflects a programme’s status at a point in time and asking that summaries of all AO assessments are published by September 2022. It said it would write to us with a summary of the outcome of this exercise so the Committee can directly raise with accounting officers why there are gaps in performance at its future sessions.33 21 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.10 to 3.13 22 Q 21 23 Q 47 24 Q 21; C&AG’s Report, para 2.5; Figure 8 25 Qq 1, 10, 13; C&AG’s report, para 1.14 26 C&AG’s report, para 3.8 27 C&AG’s report, para 3.9; Figure 9 28 Q 12 29 C&AG’s report, para 3.8; Figure 10 30 Q 15 31 Q 15, 37 32 Q 37–38 33 Qq 12, 47 Improving the Accounting Officer Assessment process 11 2 Maximising the value of AO assessments Consistent application