Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
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)
Most services are designed to recover their costs, meaning any efficiencies achieved would be passed onto fee-payers rather than retained by the department. Conversely rising costs can simply be transferred to users without challenge.45 The NAO highlighted the challenges of digital 38 Q 29 39 C&AG’s Report, para 2.27 40 Qq 45, 68 41 Qq 36-40 42 GFC0001; GFC0002 43 C&AG’s Report, para 2.27 44 Qq 41, 45 45 Qq 70, 73 14 transformation which can require an upfront investment in time, money and skills. The risk of which is also borne by the charging body, and can lead to service disruption, especially if the programme is not handled well.46 This offers little incentive for departments to innovate, improve productivity or reduce operating costs. Of the seven services examined by the NAO, only one had reduced its fees in nominal terms over the past decade as a result of efficiency savings.47
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).