Recommendation 3

Government’s requirements for delivering specialist functions such as digital and procurement effectively are often ill-suited to small bodies. Government’s requirements for delivering specialist functions (functional standards) and their associated guidance can be useful to small bodies, but they are often designed with larger organisations in mind. For example, the guidance refers to roles such as complex HR casework specialists and trained fraud risk assessors. Small bodies do not typically have this expertise in-house. Under the “comply or explain” model, organisations may choose not to follow certain elements of the standards, provided they explain their reasons. In practice, however, the standards place more emphasis on “comply” than “explain”, and determining which requirements are relevant can be difficult and time-consuming for small bodies. 3 In response to feedback from small bodies, the Cabinet Office has asked all government functions to review their requirements and to issue guidance on how they can be applied proportionately. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response to this report the Cabinet Office should update the Committee on progress with the government functions work to make it easier for small bodies to apply the functional requirements proportionately.