Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
It is not clear how Parliament, the public and other stakeholders can hold the Ministry...
Conclusion
It is not clear how Parliament, the public and other stakeholders can hold the Ministry to account for delivery of the strategy’s commitments. The Ministry’s decision not to set targets affects not only its ability to make good funding decisions, (see conclusion 2 above), but also makes it difficult to hold the Ministry to account. This is compounded by the way the Ministry implemented the strategy. It did not set out clearly how the female offender programme’s progress could be measured. Collecting data, or metrics as the Ministry refers to them, is not sufficient unless Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system 7 it is clear how they relate to what the Ministry intends to achieve. The Ministry considered that the programme required light governance because of the limited funding available and its objective to influence others. This limited stakeholders’ visibility of the programme’s progress. The Ministry claims that it now has a list of 66 commitments from the strategy with an assessment of how much progress has been made on each. It also said that it is rearranging how it manages and oversees implementation of the strategy. One of the changes is that specialist providers of women’s services will no longer be members of the minister-led board, which may reduce public scrutiny. Recommendation: The Ministry must clarify what it aims to deliver via the strategy and its progress to date. It should: • publish forthwith the 66 commitments in the strategy that it has assessed the progress of using Red/Amber/Green ratings, with the details of the progress that underpin the ratings; • write to the Committee alongside its Treasury Minute response setting out what it will achieve and by when in implementing the strategy over the next 3 years so it can be held to account; and • write to us by the end of July 2022 setting out the new governance arrangements including how it will improve transparency for specialist providers, experts and other external stakeh
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: Summer 2022 5.2 The Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan will include a list of the commitments in the Female Offender Strategy with an assessment of whether those commitments are complete, will be taken forward in the Delivery Plan, or are now part of business as usual. 5.3 The Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan will also set out the department’s commitments for the next three years, including an outcomes delivery framework, and will include details of the Delivery Plan’s new governance structure. The department will report to the Expert Group of stakeholders and the inter-Ministerial Board on progress in delivering its action plan. 5.4 The department has written to the Committee on 6 July 2022 alongside this Treasury Minute with further details, as requested.