Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
57th Report - Government services: Generating income
Published 10 Dec 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Government services: Identifying costs and generating income All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The process for amending fees across government is slow and complex as certain public bodies took an average of 63 weeks, with the longest case taking over two years. This undermines financial sustainability because it makes it harder to recover costs. This delay is because bodies must first secure approval from their parent department and then the HM Treasury before preparing secondary legislation for Parliamentary scrutiny. The absence of standardised data requirements also leads to a ‘back and forth’ between departments, arm’s-length bodies and the Treasury, which prolongs the process and limits transparency over whether fees reflect the true cost of services.27
From: Public Accounts Committee, 57th Report - Government services: Generating income (HC 890), 10 December 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 April 2026 (deadline 10 February 2026).