Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Waste reform delays linked to external factors and poor programme management setup.
Conclusion
The Department told us that factors outside of its control have contributed to the delays, for example, COVID-19 limiting its engagement with stakeholders and local authorities and political change impacting its ability to obtain cross-Government agreement.10 However, the Department also accepts the programme was impacted by poor initial set up including: running the programme as three separate projects and poor programme management capability and capacity.11 The Department recognises that it could have had better engagement with stakeholders.12 These weaknesses in the set- up to the programme are reflected in the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s June and September 2022 reports.13 The Department told us it has since looked to implement comprehensively all the IPA’s recommendations. It told us it has since worked to: • run the reforms as an integrated programme. • improve its programme management office set up, resourcing and governance, bringing in a programme delivery specialist senior responsible owner and project management specialists. • improve stakeholder engagement by really hearing and responding to the concerns of stakeholders.14 5 Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Mandate, January 2021 6 C&AG’s Report, paras 17 and 2.8 7 C&AG’s Report, paras 15, 1.7, 2.6 and figure 7 8 Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Update on packaging reforms to help drive down inflation – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), July 2023 9 Qq 11, 13; C&AG’s Report, paras 15 and 2.6 10 Qq 9, 22 11 Qq 22, 24, 27, 28 12 Q 24 13 Qq 22, 24; C&AG’s Report, para 2.8, 2.14 14 Qq 22, 24, 27 Government’s programme of waste reforms 11
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation and states the recommendation is already implemented, detailing several actions taken to improve programme management, stakeholder engagement, and governance across its Major Projects Portfolio, including establishing an initiation service and reviewing board structures.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1.3 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 1.4 Since March 2020, the IPA has undertaken 27 reviews of the department’s programmes that form part of the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), which has resulted in 225 recommendations. The most common themes have been programme/project management, stakeholder engagement/communications and governance. 1.5 The programme/project management theme includes recommendations to improve critical path, resource planning, programme controls and integrated programme planning. To address these, the department has established an initiation service to transition policy into project delivery integrating IPA start up tools, greater resource and capability planning and maximising the use of digital tools/analysis to embed standards and ensure consistency. 1.6 Stakeholder engagement/communication theme recommendations focus on improving stakeholder identification, engagement strategies/activities with customers and feedback loops. The department is supporting individual programmes to develop stakeholder analysis and engagement plans, encouraging the development of management strategies and simplifying existing tools for identifying, analysing and proactively managing stakeholders. 1.7 Governance theme recommendations include improving the effectiveness of programme governance and roles and input from stakeholders and subject matter experts. The department has reviewed standard programme board terms of reference/structures and programme board membership to ensure they continue to align to the functional standard, government best practice and to assess board effectiveness and maturity. Portfolio Directorate are looking at opportunities to strengthen governance following the appointment of the Director General for Portfolio Delivery and are considering options to provide improved oversight of the delivery of the Defra Portfolio. 1.8 In addition, the department is creating an easily accessed and searchable repository of useful learning for programmes to access and to help improve how the department manages programmes in the future.