Recommendation 8

We asked the Treasury how it will ensure efficiency plans consider the risk of ‘cost shunting’, where money saved in one area increases costs in another area, and whether it would be asking departments to identify where knock-on impacts could occur. The Treasury said that the Spending Review process will encourage different parts of government to come together and will require departments to have good understanding of where investment will be required and where benefits will be seen.18 The Treasury also said that guidance helps establish potential impacts across government. It highlighted 11 Q 54 12 Q 54, Boardman Review of Government COVID-19 Procurement final report (publishing.service.gov.uk) 8 December 2020, page 2 13 Qq. 55, 57 14 Q 57 15 C&AG’s Report, para 11 & 15 16 C&AG’s Report, para 17 17 C&AG’s Report, para 14 18 Q 60 10 Efficiency in government the New Burdens Doctrine, which requires departments to set out any consequences of planned changes to local government in order to provide the resources needed, as an example.19 Additionally, we heard that the Treasury’s ‘Managing Public Money’ guidance sets out departmental Accounting Officers responsibility to constantly assess the impact of the delivery of savings, efficiencies and transformation programmes for the exchequer as a whole.20 We asked the Treasury whether these impact assessments should be made publicly available to the taxpayer, and whether it is confident that they are being done well enough. The Treasury agreed that they should be made visible to the taxpayer, but that it could not be certain impact assessments are done properly for every policy.21