Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
We asked the Ministry how it could measure progress as it did not yet have...
Conclusion
We asked the Ministry how it could measure progress as it did not yet have milestones. In its reply it claimed that it had looked at 66 commitments from the strategy and given each a Red/Amber /Green rating for progress.51 We asked if it would publish the 66 commitments and show the us which were green and which were red. The Ministry replied that a progress update had been shared with the Advisory Board on Female Offenders (ABFO) in November 2021. However, Women in Prison, a member of ABFO, did not recall such a document and reported that ABFO members “are still uninformed of what the 66 commitments in the strategy are.”52
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5: PAC 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. 5: PAC 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 stakeholders. 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.