Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Publish a strategy for evaluating employment support reforms and regularly refreshing the evidence base.
Recommendation
The Department has not evaluated the effectiveness of its approach to supporting claimants to work for a decade. The Department does not have an up-to-date evidence base from which to assess the suitability of its current approach to supporting claimants to work. Its most recent evaluation is from 2015, before Universal Credit was rolled out. The Department considers it to be challenging to develop a new evidence base using randomised control trials, which it describes as the gold standard, bearing in mind how long it takes to carry out the trials and get the results. It is currently assessing alternative arrangements for delivering its services, where possible using randomised control trials. Specifically, it is testing using video and other channels rather than face-to-face communication, and reducing the frequency of work coaches’ engagement with claimants. It expects the results of these trials to be available between June 2025 and November 2026. The Department is also comparing and contrasting the evidence that it gathers over shorter time periods – for example, it is using its core support model in one place and a different approach in another place thereby creating groups of claimants that it can compare. It wants to get test results quickly in order to help develop the new jobs and careers service. recommendation The Department should, within six months, publish its strategy for evaluating the impact of its reforms to the employment support system and for refreshing its evidence base regularly.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states the recommendation is implemented, pointing to its recently published Evidence and Evaluation Strategy 2025. It details ongoing Universal Credit trials with findings due by the end of 2026, and an evaluation strategy for the Jobs and Careers Service is under development.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation. Recommendation implemented Ofwat will use its suite of regulatory tools to hold companies to account, as recently seen with its enforcement decisions against several companies for their management of sewage treatment works. It has also tripled its enforcement capacity in recent years following extra funding, as approved from the Treasury. Ofwat monitors the performance of companies against the PR24 eight performance measures focused on reducing pollution and improving river health. The Environment Agency has transformed its regulatory approach to target key areas and adopt a more proactive, preventative stance. The Environment Agency has exceeded the target of 4,000 inspections by the end of March 2025 and are on track to complete 10,000 within the year. The serious cases of non-compliance are being considered for enforcement, while most minor breaches will be addressed through local operational action. Crucially, inspections generate intelligence that enables preventative measures. This will help avert future incidents and contribute to a water system that is more resilient. Both regulators are also focusing on long-term planning, investment, legislation implementation, and addressing root causes. The Chief Executives of both regulators have written to the Committee to set this out in more detail.