Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Not Addressed
Insufficient evaluations of government major projects, with significant departmental gaps remaining.
Conclusion
There are too few evaluations of government’s major projects. As we pointed out in our May 2022 report on the use of evaluation and modelling in government, in 2019, only 8% of £432 billion of spend on major projects had robust impact evaluation plans in place, and 64% of spend had no evaluation arrangements at all. HM Treasury told us that this figure is too low and that it is not acceptable for departments to have no evaluation arrangements in place. The IPA told us that most departments have gaps in terms of their evaluations but that the Ministry of Defence has particularly significant gaps. The Evaluation Task Force is currently updating the 2019 analysis of how many projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio have robust evaluation plans.9
Government Response Summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response focuses entirely on making public health a statutory objective for water companies, regulating sludge, and tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in wastewater, with a White Paper planned for Autumn 2025. This does not address the committee's conclusion about the lack of evaluations for major government projects.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The department agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. on 21 July 2025. It recommends making public health a statutory objective for water companies and highlights their role in tackling antimicrobial resistance through better wastewater management. It also recommends that the UK and Welsh governments should tighten regulatory oversight of sludge activity by moving the treatment, storage and use of sludge into the Environmental Permitting Regulations. The department will provide a full response via a White Paper in Autumn 2025, setting out its approach to embedding public health across the water system, ensuring public health is addressed substantively and systemically. The department has been working with water companies under their Chemical Investigations Programme (CIP), to improve the evidence base on the behaviour and fate of contaminants during treatment processes. Research from phase 3 of CIP investigated antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and sewage sludge and evidence suggested that anaerobic digestion – the prevalent sewage sludge treatment method – demonstrated some level of effectiveness in reducing AMR in sludge. Building upon these findings, phase 4 aims to delve deeper into the relationship between AMR and sludge and will report in 2027. Defra is also in discussions with DHSC and stakeholders to understand the evidence gaps on human health and wastewater. The department will commission further research to address these gaps by Summer 2026 and will continue to test and improve the evidence base.