Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 29
48th Report - Smarter delivery of public services
Published 22 Oct 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Smarter delivery of public services All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The ODP told us that the seasonality in demand in some departments meant that they would be repeatedly using SRRT.56 We asked about whether departments were in fact using SRRT as a “get-out” clause, building it into their capability plans, rather than becoming more agile at dealing with their own demand. The ODP acknowledged that departments should be better at dealing with peaks and troughs in demand and described a number of ways this could be done, such as by trying to reduce fluctuations, building in more flexibility internally, or using automation. The ODP said that using the SRRT should therefore be a last resort, but that sharing resource in this way was still an effective and good value way of meeting the demand.57 54 Qq 19, 23-24 55 Qq 16, 19, 22, 24 56 Q 22 57 Qq 26-28 15
From: Public Accounts Committee, 48th Report - Smarter delivery of public services (HC 889), 22 October 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-eighth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 22 December 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forth-eighth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Operational Delivery Profession states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six recommendations, giving target dates for four and describing two as already implemented.
- On external visibility, the Profession agrees and gives a target implementation date of September 2026; its annual business plan will include metrics on profile-raising, with the 2025-26 plan "due to be shared by August 2026".
- On joining up with local government and the private sector, the Profession agrees and describes the recommendation as "implemented", citing sharing of its Professional Skills Framework and Centre of Excellence access with the wider public sector.
- On monitoring capability, the Profession says initial measures "will be baselined by September 2026", while recognising "the inherent challenge of evidencing a direct causal relationship" between its activities and outcomes for citizens.
- On digital skills and AI, the Profession agrees, with a target date of December 2026, and says a workforce challenges study is "underway" to identify future skills needs in operational delivery.