Recommendation 6

HM Treasury is not making the most of the information available within the WGA. As the balance sheet of the nation and an economic snapshot of the economy, the WGA has the potential to be an important and useful document in explaining where taxpayers’ money is spent and where are the government’s financial liabilities. Given this, there is more that HM Treasury could do to help Parliament read the accounts, and understand what the implications are of the information presented. This could, for example, take the form of an annual financial presentation, using the data and information included in the most recent audited WGA. There are also international examples of transparency over public spending that HM Treasury could learn from, such the regional spending analysis available within the US. Regional analysis of spending in the UK is now available through OSCAR II. Recommendation 6: HM Treasury should, within its Treasury Minute response, explain how it intends to improve the accessibility of the information within the Whole of Government Accounts, for example through seminars with MPs, and providing access to the localised spending data now available through OSCAR II. 8 Whole of Government Accounts 2020–21 1 Timeliness of the WGA