Recommendation 3

We are concerned that the Department has still not put in place adequate oversight to ensure strong financial management and reporting across its group which are fundamental to the effective delivery of its policy and operational work. The Department is responsible for ensuring there is an adequate and robust system of financial control across its group and the organisations that form part of this. Yet its accounts have been qualified for the last four years owing to a variety of reasons relating to basic financial controls, the accuracy of financial statements and whether money has been spent in the way that Parliament intended. As an executive agency UKHSA is formally part of the Department, and the Department says that it has provided it with additional support and oversight, but UKHSA’s accounts have nonetheless been disclaimed for a second consecutive year. The Department also pushed additional responsibility on to this new and struggling organisation when it transferred responsibility for the Covid Vaccine Unit to UKHSA in October 2022. We are not convinced by the Department’s assertion that it has little control over the issues relating to the audit of local NHS bodies that have repeatedly resulted in its accounts being delayed, nor that it does not have the levers needed to address them. We have previously recognised that over the last few years the Department has had to produce its accounts in exceptional circumstances, but these issues cannot be allowed to continue post-pandemic. Recommendation 3: The Department urgently needs to grip and address the problems with financial management across its Departmental Group and set out a clear plan to improve financial management and oversight of its group bodies.