Recommendation 19

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