Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 24
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 ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department told us that it had its own assurance programme based on the world-class National Institute of Standards and Technology assurance programme, and that it also used the GovAssure process which is the government standard for the most critical systems. The Accounting Officer explained that security as whole was overseen on his behalf by the Department’s Finance Director General and by the departmental audit and risk committee. The Department said that it had dedicated staff who were expert in what they did, and this was a larger group of people than it had historically been. It also noted that it was building capability for the whole of government and was the home of the security academy.37 33 Q 40 34 Q 29 35 Committee of Public Accounts, Government cyber resilience, Twenty-Fourth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 643, 9 May 2025, pp 3-4 36 Q 57 37 Q 57 14
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".