Recommendation 15

The NAO concluded that functional savings report may therefore give an incomplete picture of savings generated across the functions. The Cabinet Office provides challenge on an ad-hoc basis to functions where it believes that they have secured savings but not submitted them as part of the reporting process. In 2023, the GIAA noted that this approach meant that there was a risk that efficiencies might be underreported due to the amount of support the Cabinet Office could provide to the functions during this exercise.21