Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Cabinet Office commits to consistently capturing savings, acknowledging prior inefficiencies.
Conclusion
We asked what scope there was to accelerate the identification of savings. The Cabinet Office told us that the next year would be one of transition given the introduction of the Efficiency Framework and expanding this from the Treasury and Cabinet Office teams to all government departments. The Cabinet Office told us that it wanted to increase savings, but that it was simultaneously aware that savings were also indications that something could have been done at a lower cost in the first place, so it did “not necessarily regard more and more of them every year as a goal”. But it committed to ensuring, with the NAO’s advice, that it was comprehensively capturing, in a consistent way, the savings being achieved.32 The impact of efficiencies elsewhere in government
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, committing the Cabinet Office to work with HMT to set specific cash and non-cash releasing savings targets for 2023-24 by October 2024, reporting these to the Committee. The Cabinet Office will ensure functions report savings commensurate with these targets, publishing them in Spring 2025 after GIAF audit.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: end October 2024 4.2 The Cabinet Office will work with HMT to set savings targets (cash releasing and non-cash releasing savings) across the functions to work towards for the 2023-24 savings exercise due to be published in Spring 2025. The Cabinet Office will report back to the Committee on these targets in October 2024. 4.3 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: end June 2025 4.4 The Cabinet Office will ensure functions report savings that are commensurate with the savings target set, publishing this in the Spring 2025 efficiency and savings publication after they have been audited by the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAF). 4.5 The Cabinet Office will use the new targets to encourage Functions to identify robust savings that are able to meet rigorous GIAF standards.