Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
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)
Poor reporting limits the Treasury and Parliament’s ability to monitor fees and hold departments to account. The NAO found that none of the seven services it examined complied fully with all of the Treasury’s disclosure requirements in their respective 2023-24 annual report and accounts.37 Accounting officers are responsible for ensuring fees are appropriately set and transparently reported, yet incomplete and inconsistent disclosures mean there is no clear picture of fee-setting across government. This weakens scrutiny and allows significant surpluses or deficits 32 Qq 11,28 33 Q 43 34 Letter from HM Treasury’s Permanent Secretary, 24 November 2025 35 Qq 11-15 36 Qq 28, 29; C&AG’s Report, Figure 13 37 C&AG’s Report, para 2.27 13 to build up before corrective action is taken. The Treasury told us that greater consistency and standardisation in reporting will help improve its understanding of departmental performance and better support accounting officers in fulfilling their responsibilities.38
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).