Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
The NAO found that while government implemented controls through both its committee structures and individual...
Conclusion
The NAO found that while government implemented controls through both its committee structures and individual departmental programmes, it had not set out risks for the overall system of border measures in one place. It found that government had not adopted system-level good practice such as risk registers, regular data dashboards or metrics to measure and assess success so as to bring together information about cross- border travel in one place.26 We wanted to understand how the Cabinet Office had ensured the traffic light system had put good risk management or central oversight in place that would allow it to adequately balance the competing objectives of protecting the health and the economy, so we asked why the measures were not managed as a single programme with a single risk register. The Cabinet Office said that there was central government co- ordination from the COVID-19 taskforce which monitored the programmes alongside 40 other programmes that tackled COVID-19 and which needed to ‘interlink’ with each other.27
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: PAC conclusion: 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. 7: PAC 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. 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.