Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Accepted in Part
Incomplete and inconsistent fee disclosures hinder parliamentary and Treasury oversight of departments.
Recommendation
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
Government Response Summary
The Treasury will update the Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) to align to 6.11 of Managing Public Money (MPM) by Spring 2026 to include clearer reporting guidance for fee-charging public bodies. They will also keep this under review and consider if this will be sufficient or whether additional reporting requirements are necessary.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
4.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 4.2 The government agrees that published information on fees and charges should be improved. This needs to be balanced against the wider aim to reduce the financial reporting burden and efforts to improve timeliness of financial reporting more generally. The Treasury will update the Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) to align to 6.11 of Managing Public Money (MPM) by Spring 2026 to include clearer reporting guidance for fee-charging public bodies to ensure more effective Parliamentary scrutiny. 4.3 The government will continue to keep this under review including considering as part of a wider review of Central Government financial reporting and consider if this will be sufficient or whether additional reporting requirements are necessary to achieve the Committee’s objectives.