Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 37
37
Department published 2023-24 accounts ten months late, missing HM Treasury deadline.
Conclusion
HM Treasury sets timetable expectations for the laying of Departmental resource accounts before Parliament in a ‘Dear Accounting Officer’ letter. This provides direction to Accounting Officers of Departments and other public bodies on preparing their Annual Report and Accounts under IFRS and the FReM. The 2023–24 letter set out that “Departments should aim to lay resource accounts [ … ] by the administrative deadline of 30 June 2024 56 HMG, Making Government Deliver for the British People, February 2023, p 6 57 HM Treasury, DAO 02/24 - Accounts Directions 2023–24, June 2024 58 DBT ARA 2023–24, p 8 18 where possible, and no later than the parliamentary summer recess”.59 The Department published its first set of accounts, for the year ended 31 March 2024, on 30 January 2025–ten months following the financial year end, and seven months after HM Treasury’s administrative deadline.60 The Production of the 2023–24 accounts and the Department’s plan for future accounts