Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
The Treasury told us that the nature of the tight budgets in Spending Reviews forces...
Conclusion
The Treasury told us that the nature of the tight budgets in Spending Reviews forces departments to look within their budgets for improvements and savings, which it says will cause departments to constantly seek improvement.55 The Treasury said that strengthening the finance team in each department will make departments seek efficiencies more frequently. The Treasury suggested that if the finance function can have a bigger impact on departmental strategy and service delivery, then departments will unlock efficiencies year on year. The Cabinet Office added that government’s greater focus on service users, such as by using the Public Value Framework, will provide another incentive for continuous improvement since departments will need to respond to their experiences.56 We asked whether staff would be sufficiently incentivised to pursue efficiency plans which might put their own jobs at risk. The Treasury told us that it tries to encourage innovation and suggested that the prospect of career progress would be sufficient incentive for people to come forward with such ideas.57 52 Q 74, 89 53 C&AG’s report, para 33 54 C&AG’s report, para 35 55 Qq. 31, 100 56 Q 102 57 Q 101 Efficiency in government 15
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
6. PAC conclusion: Government efficiency drives tend to be one-off events rather than being embedded as a continuous priority. 6: PAC recommendation: HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office should work jointly from the centre of government to consider how best to instil a culture of continuous improvement across government that lasts beyond this Spending Review process. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2022 6.2 As part of the driving the agenda on efficiency, HM Treasury will continue to work closely with the Government Functions and other parts of the centre of government to drive the identification of further efficiencies. HM Treasury intends to do this through closer collaboration with the functions within decision making on programmes and ensuring functions are engaged to enable delivery. HM Treasury is also looking to regularise the links between functional experts and Treasury teams to improve scrutiny of all business cases. HM Treasury plans to go further in this space and will write to the Committee with plans to oversee the Efficiency Agenda at the beginning of the SR period in summer 2022. 6.3 The Declaration on Government Reform signed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary in June 2021 laid out a vision for reform and kickstarted its implementation across government via 30 initial actions. The Cabinet Office is capitalising on the momentum generated to mainstream reform across government, through reform Champions in each department (there are now more than 2,000), through the A Modern Civil Service vision, and through leadership from both Ministers and senior officials - both as sponsors of actions and in their day-to-day work. In this way, the Declaration will instil a culture of continuous improvement across government that will deliver greater efficiency and value for money across coming years.