Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
20
For the WGA to record the impact of COVID-19, government bodies will need to record...
Conclusion
For the WGA to record the impact of COVID-19, government bodies will need to record costs in a manner that allows the increase in spending due to COVID-19 to be identifiable from any other changes in spending.42 The Treasury outlined that it was asking Departments to track and record how they are using the ring-fenced money for COVID and EU spending, however this involved significant judgement and manual intervention. The Treasury also confirmed that it was in the early stages of considering how to identify and report non ring-fenced spend on COVID-19 and EU Exit , but were not actively looking at introducing time recording processes to enable staff costs to be recorded against COVID-19 or EU exit.43 This would be essential to capture both the true cost to the government of undertaking this work, and whether government has the capacity to deliver.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2021 5.2 The Government Finance Function is developing a performance framework to measure progress against the strategic deliverables it set out in its 2019 strategy and to drive enhanced insight across central government. The function will begin reporting in April 2021 and will use the performance framework to measure the overall impact of the function across the core finance activities set out in the Government Finance Standard. The convergence of finance processes and data standards to improve the comparability of data across departments is integral to this, enabling greater consistency and comparability of finance information. Additionally, minimum standards for board pack management information have been agreed by the Finance Leadership Group and are in the process of being embedded by departments, with a sub-set of early adopters due to implement in April 2021. HM Treasury is also piloting certified data analytics training in partnership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to enhance data analytical and visualisation skills. 5.3 A full review of the Government Finance Function’s progress against the objectives set out in the 2019-2023 Government Finance Function Strategy is presented in the Function’s Annual Review 2020. WGA 2019-20 will include a summary that will allow the public and Parliament a snapshot of the work of the Government Finance Function. 5.4 Consistent reporting of cross government spending remains a significant challenge, with consistent definitions, treatment of opportunity costs or allocations of staff costs to projects as barriers to consistent reporting of costs. However, the implementation of OSCAR 2 allows for more efficient gathering of data, as well as the potential for comparing data across organisations to generate insight. The convergence of finance data, technology and processes should allow for more comparability. 5.5 HM Treasury has also set out additional reporting requirements on EU Exit and COVID-19 for departmental Annual Reports and Accounts (ARA), as outlined to the Committee in the Chief Secretary’s letter of 3 December 2020. The WGA 2019-20 performance report will include estimated expenditures on EU Exit and COVID-19, using the best available information, including departmental ARA as they become available.