Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Published 9 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Department said that it was in the process of setting up the new jobs and careers service, which would need to be done by October 2026 when the current National Careers Service contracts came to an end. It had taken over the contracts but Ministers had decided to insource careers advice services from 1 October 2026. We asked the Department if it would make sure it retained in the new organisation the skills contained within the National Careers Service providers. We believe this is very important. The Department told us that insourcing was important so that it could try different things rather than having to negotiate them through a commercial contract. It said it had time to get the new arrangements right, including bringing over talented staff from the existing providers.15 Reduction in work coach support for claimants
From: Public Accounts Committee, 60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 (HC 1447), 9 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 April 2026 (deadline 9 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with four of the Committee's five areas of recommendation and disagrees with the recommendation to publish regular jobcentre-level performance data.
- On integrating skills into the Jobs and Careers Service, the government agrees, naming "a key milestone" as bringing the National Careers Service together with Jobcentre Plus from 1 October 2026, with an update due in Spring 2026.
- On the shorter first work coach meeting, the government agrees and says it "will be undertaking a qualitative research project" to gather claimant insight, including feedback on the length and content of the meeting.
- The government disagrees with publishing jobcentre-level data, saying its view "remains that the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level", and points to its quarterly Labour Market Insights publication.
- On PIP claim times, the government agrees and says it "will however write to the Committee to provide the information available as requested, by the end of March 2026".