Recommendation 14

The Accounting Officer for the Ministry of Justice explained her responsibilities for the risk and performance of the ALBs within the Ministry of Justice departmental group boundary. As part of this, the Ministry of Justice requests performance, financial and risk data from its ALBs on a regular basis.29 However, the Cabinet Office does not require departments to provide it with information on the risks in their ALBs, and standardised data on the risks across ALBs still does not exist. HM Treasury told us to manage risks it is important to work closely with Departments and Principal Accounting Officers. This is particularly the case in new organisations that are spending a lot of money, and it highlighted the work it has done with Test and Trace and the NHS. It said it was more difficult to assess risks in smaller bodies, as spend is not the only arbiter of risk.30