Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Publish departments' Outcome Delivery Plans and progress against cross-cutting outcomes to improve transparency.
Recommendation
Government does not consistently report on cross-cutting outcomes. The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury are responsible for supporting and monitoring the delivery of departmental objectives and 20 cross-cutting outcomes set-out in Outcome Delivery Plans (ODPs). Departments published their first ODPs in July 2021 but cross-cutting outcomes were not always consistently reported. For 2023–24 departments will only be required to produce internal ODPs. HM Treasury expects Departments to set out their performance against their ODPs in their 2023–24 annual reports and accounts. Recommendation 5: Cabinet Office should publish departments’ ODPs to improve transparency, along with plans to deliver them. The Cabinet Office should also more clearly publish cross-cutting outcomes and progress made against them. Cross-government working 7 1 Setting-up and delivering cross- government working
Government Response Summary
The government states that details of cross-cutting priority outcomes were already published at Spending Review 2021, including in a supplementary document with performance metrics. Departments are also expected to publish performance against their Outcome Delivery Plans in their annual reports and accounts.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented The government already published details of the cross-cutting priority outcomes. At Spending Review 2021, the government published priority outcomes on the relevant lead department pages in Chapter 4 of The Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, as well as identifying cross-cutting outcomes and the contributing departments. The full list was also published in a supplementary document, including performance metrics. As set out above, departments are expected to publish performance against their ODPs, including the cross- cutting priority outcomes they lead, in their annual reports and accounts.