Recommendation 23

The Department set out in its Governance Statement that during the audit of the Department’s accounts, it became apparent the Department’s process for collating and assessing potential related parties and related party transactions did not provide the necessary completeness assurance over the interests held by senior individuals. Consequently, the Department undertook further work to strengthen its processes, including obtaining direct written confirmation of related parties from Ministers, non- executive directors and senior staff and undertaking completeness searches on the results of those confirmations.41 This led to the disclosure of 13 and a half pages of interests, held by Ministers, senior members of staff, non-executive directors or their immediate families within the Annual Report and Accounts.42 We told the Department that the extensive disclosures made were a welcome improvement in its transparency and the Department agreed.43 Re-organisation of the NHS