Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
The Cabinet Office failed to bring together how risks were identified and managed across the...
Recommendation
The Cabinet Office failed to bring together how risks were identified and managed across the portfolio of programmes for implementing health measures at the border. We have repeatedly found that the pandemic has exposed limitations in how government manages risks, especially those that cut across institutional boundaries. Government organised its cross-border travel measures as a portfolio of seven separate programmes across separate departments with central coordination, rather than as one cross-government programme. There was no central governance or oversight of the portfolio, and we are not convinced that the Cabinet Office adequately ensured that the portfolio and its constituent programmes balanced the competing objectives of protecting health and protecting the economy. And we are not convinced that the Cabinet Office applied the principles of risk management, that are set out in the government’s Orange Book, to the traffic light system. In accordance with good practice, we would expect to see data dashboards and risk registers that bring together the risks from the various departmental programmes in one place to inform ministerial decision-making. Recommendation: The Cabinet Office should produce, within six months, guidance to accompany the Orange Book setting out how cross-government portfolios of programmes should aggregate and manage risks at a portfolio-level so that effective whole-system governance processes are in place. To the same timescale, it should review whether other cross-government portfolios have effective whole-system governance and risk management processes in place. Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic 9 1 Implementing cross-border travel measures
Government Response Summary
HM Treasury will work with the Cabinet Office to develop guidance on aggregating and managing risks at a portfolio level, and undertake a review of approaches taken on some other cross-government portfolios. HM Treasury will write to the Committee with an update by January 2023.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: January 2023 7.2 The Risk Profession in HM Treasury will work with the Cabinet Office to develop guidance, consistent with the principles-based approach in the Orange Book, on aggregating and managing risks at a portfolio level, and undertake a review of approaches taken on some other cross-government portfolios to understand the types of portfolios where there could be opportunities to use the new guidance. HM Treasury will write to the Committee with an update by the target implementation date.