Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 30
30
Deferred
The Accounting Officer told us that he received regular advice on a range of Home...
Recommendation
The Accounting Officer told us that he received regular advice on a range of Home Office issues including each part, and the totality, of the programme of activity to stop the crossings of small boats and deter illegal migration. The Accounting Officer accepted his obligation to provide AO assessment summaries when there was a significant change to a programme or policy.52 HM Treasury wrote to use after the evidence session to clarify that a “significant change” included circumstances where a project no longer met the standards which informed the AO’s previous assessment or there was a major change in the programme’s scope.53 We questioned why the Accounting Officer had not updated his AO assessment on the Sovereign Borders Programme to reflect the introduction of the Illegal Migration Act. At the evidence session, the Accounting Officer acknowledged that this was a significant piece of legislation and told us they were keeping their assessment under constant review.54 The Home Office subsequently provided written evidence which explained that the summary assessment only covered the Nationality and Borders Act as this was the scope of the outline business case. The Home Office committed to publishing an updated summary AO assessment after the outline business case is updated to incorporate the Illegal Migration Act and Safety of Rwanda Bill.55
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to produce Accounting Officer Assessments (AOAs) for required programmes, but no target implementation date can be provided yet as it depends on project development and ministerial views. Discussions on some programmes mean AOAs will not yet be published.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: to be advised. 6.2 The implementation dates are dependent on project development; therefore, a date cannot be currently supplied but the department will inform the Committee as soon as it is able to do so. 6.3 The Home Office is committed to producing Accounting Officer Assessments (AOA) for all required programmes including any new or outstanding Programme AOAs, these are being progressed now and whilst the Home Office intend to publish any outstanding assessments as quickly as possible, it is right that it gets the views of Ministers in this process. For new programmes or those with significant changes, the AOA will be produced promptly at the same time as an updated business case. 6.4 Decisions by new Ministers are likely to result in changes to some Programmes. For example, discussions are ongoing on the Asylum Accommodation Non-Detained Programme including large sites and so the department will not yet be publishing an AOA but will keep the Committee updated. 6.5 On sharing information about negotiations with other countries that are being considered for third country processing, the Home Office Permanent Secretary noted during the Committee evidence session that it is important that the substance of those negotiations is kept private due to their sensitive nature. The department will write to the new Committee on this in due course to provide updates as necessary.