Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Mandate HM Treasury to proactively collect WGA data and address missing submissions.
Conclusion
It is unacceptable that the increase in missing data is reducing the utility and reliability of the Whole of Government Accounts. A total of 155 public bodies did not submit data this year, including two pension schemes with liabilities of £86.9 billion and £48.2 billion respectively. As we found in our examination of the 2019– 20 WGA, gaps in the data reduces the completeness of the information available in the WGA, and reduces the certainty of any consequent insights, conclusions or decisions. When combined with the delays to the accounts, it makes it a less useful source to base decision making on. Stakeholders have suggested that using unaudited numbers for local authorities would be better than omitting them, as the omission renders the data definitely inaccurate, whereas including unaudited data is only potentially incorrect. Trend analysis will also be negatively impacted by missing data. We are particularly concerned that unless the trend towards incomplete data can be rapidly reversed, it could take several cycles for any trend analysis from the WGA to be of usable quality. As we say throughout this report this delay is highly undesirable and HM Treasury must prioritise ways of improving on this prediction. Recommendation 2a: HM Treasury must be more proactive in collecting the data required to complete the WGA, including: • Engaging with bodies to better understand why they have not submitted data. • Requiring bodies to submit draft data even if audited data is not available. • Identifying appropriate consequences/sanctions for bodies that don’t submit required data. b) HM Treasury should, as part of the 2021–22 WGA, include within the governance statement details of how it is addressing the issue of missing data. 6 Whole of Government Accounts 2020–21
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating it has already included details on addressing missing data in the 2021-22 WGA governance statement and an expanded section in the performance report, and will continue to do so in future publications.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. department is addressing the issue of missing data. The governance statement in the 2021-22 WGA discusses the issue of missing data and we will continue to do this in future publications. The department has also included an expanded section in the performance report that focuses on how the issue of missing data has been addressed. This includes graphs showing the 5-year trends, the number of missing entities split by sector, and an estimate of the financial impact of the missing data on each line of the financial statements. As WGA is not a traditional group consolidation, the WGA Accounting Officer is not ultimately responsible for the governance of each body consolidated into WGA. The WGA Accounting Officer instead places reliance on component accounting officers to fulfil their governance responsibilities.