Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Accepted
Government departments are actively developing corporate finance and insolvency expertise.
Recommendation
The Department told us that it was continuously developing its in-house skills in areas such as insolvency and restructuring. HM Treasury told us that every department needed to have corporate finance and insolvency expertise and that it had seen an increase in the levels of corporate finance work being undertaken by government in the last two years. In its view, all of these activities were an important part of continuing to build capability. HM Treasury also told us that it was working to have more collaboration between it and UKGI to train civil servants in corporate finance and to offer them qualifications so that they are better able to deal with these types of activities.41 The upskilling and training of staff across the Civil Service in corporate finance is led by UKGI through the Government Corporate Finance Profession whose purpose is to promote skills development, knowledge sharing, networking, collaboration and career development in corporate finance and governance.42 HM Treasury explained that it, the Department and UKGI sat on the Bulb Operating Board which allowed it to benefit from the expertise of UKGI, which they brought in to help with difficult things such as intercreditor disputes and how to structure a deal to protect taxpayers’ money. HM Treasury further explained that UKGI had a highly impressive and specialised set of talent that provides advice which allowed a Department to be an intelligent customer.43 38 Qq 63, 64, 78 39 Qq 23, 78; C&AG’s Report Figure 3 40 Qq 78, 79, 82 41 Qq 64, 69, 70 42 Q 70; About us - Government Corporate Finance Profession - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 43 Qq 69, 70 Bulb Energy 17 3 Wider energy market and impact The financial resilience of the energy market
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation, stating that UKGI and HM Treasury will review the Government Corporate Finance Profession’s forward plan by Autumn 2024 to raise awareness of specialist skills and continue to update knowledge-sharing tools.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 5.2 UKGI and HM Treasury will work together to review the Government Corporate Finance Profession’s (‘GCFP’ or ‘the Profession’) forward plan to include raising awareness of the specialist skills that are available across HMG in a supplier failure scenario and similar situations, including drawing on the recent NAO Lessons Learned paper – ‘Monitoring and responding to companies in distress. 5.3 UK Government Investments leads the Government Corporate Finance Profession and the UKGI’s Chief Executive is the Head of the Profession. The GCFP’s purpose is to promote skills development, knowledge sharing, networking, collaboration, and career development in corporate finance across Whitehall. The Profession focuses on technical skills development targeting civil and public servants undertaking corporate finance work across government, to help them develop an understanding of the wider external market and to provide an opportunity to support profile raising for corporate finance practitioners. The Profession continuously evaluates its purpose and vision, interacting with its membership base and utilising a series of surveys to understand the existing level of skills and knowledge of the membership across its published competencies, and its future needs. 5.4 The Profession will continue to monitor and update its knowledge sharing tools for its members. It regularly arranges sharing excellence seminars for members, with contributions from both the private and public sector, drawing on recent case studies to promote best practice and share learnings.