Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
44th Report - Governance and decision-making on major projects
Published 10 Sep 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Governance and decision-making on major projects All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We asked the Treasury how it will ensure that projects, which are related to each other or are in the same area but sit within different departments, do complement each other and provide value for money. It told us that governance needs to be set up which has all the people round the table and that projects such as the Oxford-Cambridge arc are not just seen as a transport project. The Treasury highlighted that mission boards are designed to look at cross-cutting government issues.32 We noted that these arrangements sounded quite ad hoc and the Treasury told us that 29 Qq 59, 62, 69 30 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.6-2.7, 2.9 31 Q 42; Question for Treasury, Written questions and answers UK Parliament, UIN 20927, 18 December 2024 32 Q 43 12 the five missions “have very clear governance structures”.33 We asked how this works in practice when there are different departments and agencies working on related projects. It told us that the mission boards meet regularly and talk these interrelationships through, and that missions cover the vast majority of what the government is trying to achieve.34
From: Public Accounts Committee, 44th Report - Governance and decision-making on major projects (HC 642), 10 September 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-fourth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 10 November 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-Fourth 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 government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" in each of the responses set out, with some marked as implemented and others given target dates.
- On the Committee's request for a 12-month update on mega-project governance, the government agrees, with a target implementation date of September 2026; the Treasury "will write to the Committee".
- On the £10 billion mega-project threshold and on alignment with Mission and place-based governance, the government agrees and records both recommendations as implemented, stating the Treasury "has written to the Committee".
- On assurance, NISTA "will be reviewing and consulting on the assurance framework holistically"; the Treasury will tie higher Delegated Authority Limits to departments evidencing compliance with standards.
- On reporting, the government agrees; NISTA "will consider how" existing reporting can be integrated with reporting against the Strategy, and the infrastructure pipeline "will be updated at least every six months".