Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Departments are not meeting government requirements on publishing evaluation plans and findings, and on transparency...
Conclusion
Departments are not meeting government requirements on publishing evaluation plans and findings, and on transparency of models and their outputs. Transparency is critical for the public to understand the evidence behind decisions and how money is being spent. It also allows departments to learn lessons from past projects and from each other. However, ministers have the final say on whether evaluations should be published, and some parts of government are reluctant to Use of evaluation and modelling in government 7 publish their evaluations. It is only recently that HM Treasury has started to ask departments to explain why they do not plan to publish some evaluations. More than one-third of chief analysts say that only sometimes are they able to publish evaluation findings as required. Transparency of the models that departments use to make decisions is also poor: only 9 out of 17 departments have published their list of business-critical models since 2013, and only four have updated this since
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 5.2 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation to publish and maintain an evaluation registry. As there is currently no centralised place where government departments can publish evaluation evidence, the Evaluation Task Force is developing an online registry of UK government evaluations that will be publicly accessible. It will allow departments to publish evaluation plans/protocols and reports, in line with expectations outlined in the Government Social Research Publication Protocol and Concordat to Support Research Integrity. It will also allow departments to indicate estimated publication dates of evaluation reports. 5.3 The evaluation registry's functionality will enable users in departments to add or update evaluation information, and the government expects that departments will use this functionality to provide explanations where publications are delayed significantly or withheld. 5.4 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2022 5.5 The Analysis Function is currently reviewing its Functional Standard which incorporates a variety of different quality dimensions with respect to analysis. Included within this standard are the various codes of practice and guidance books which support analytical best practice, of which the Aqua Book, which covers guidance on producing quality analysis for government, is one. As part of this standards piece – and in light of the Committee’s recommendation – there is a work programme over summer 2022 to review procedures around the quality assurance of models and to incorporate improved practices across departments by the end of the year.