Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Accepted
Effective savings reporting depends on comparable data systems and improved inter-functional data exchange.
Recommendation
We noted that a crucial area to improving reporting is ensuring that functions can get the data they need to identify savings, and that to do this effectively data systems needed to be updated or redesigned so that data sets were comparable. The Cabinet Office explained that two types of data were key; operational data, which is used to support the delivery of public services and analytical data which informs future policy. It told us that the crucial thing was ensuring that different local data systems were able to speak to each other so that long-term patterns can be found. The Cabinet Office told us the Central Digital and Data Office had been championing better data exchange so that “when you want to access other people’s data or have data yourself, that is now entered into a kind of registry” and the terms for sharing data were according to pre-agreed, standardised Memorandums of Understanding and templates.22 Ensuring functions report their savings
Government Response Summary
The government commits to adopting the Government Efficiency Framework (GEF) by December 2025 to drive consistency in efficiency measurement and reporting. This will ensure data comparability by requiring efficiencies to be reconcilable to departmental budgets and use common baselines.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: by December 2025 3.2 The functions’ respective methodologies for measuring and reporting efficiency savings reflect the diversity of functional activity undertaken in their respective areas. These methods range from release of cash (commercial), efficiencies baselined against projected scenarios (communications), fraud prevention, detection and recovery (counter fraud) to cash collected over business as usual (debt). 3.3 The GEF will drive consistency in the way that government departments measure and report efficiencies. The GEF sets out what efficiency is, how it should be categorised, and best practice in gathering high quality information to measure and report efficiencies. 3.4 The Cabinet Office and HMT are working closely together as the GEF is adopted by departments and functions. 3.5 Through the adoption of the GEF, all efficiencies will be required to be reconcilable to departmental budgets and as such will avoid double counting of efficiencies by requiring common and comparable baselines.