Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee

57th Report - Government services: Generating income

Public Accounts Committee HC 890 Published 10 December 2025

Report Status

Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations

25 items (16 recs)

Source

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Government Response

AI assessment · 25 of 25 classified

Accepted 9

Accepted in Part 5

Acknowledged 5

Not Addressed 1

Rejected 5

Recommendations

8 results

3 Accepted

Publish a detailed plan to reduce time and complexity in amending public service fees.

Recommendation

The Treasury and Department processes for changing fees are too slow and complex, which makes it harder for bodies to manage effectively their service costs and fee revenues. The case study services took an average of 63 weeks to change … Read more The Treasury and Department processes for changing fees are too slow and complex, which makes it harder for bodies to manage effectively their service costs and fee revenues. The case study services took an average of 63 weeks to change their fees. This results in long periods where their fees do not align with current costs, making effective cost-recovery difficult. Parliamentary scrutiny is required for secondary legislation which, while vital for accountability, adds complexity and uncertainty to the timeline that is outside of departmental control. The decision-making process is cumbersome, with multiple layers of approvals from parent departments and the Treasury which are not always proportionate to the risk or scale of change, such as routine inflationary adjustments. Timeliness is further hindered in some cases when departments do not provide sufficient detail in their proposals, making it harder for the Treasury to assess them effectively. The Treasury recognises the need to simplify this process and plans to introduce a standardised template to support the completeness of submissions for informed decision making. Once the Treasury has made improvements to 4 streamline the process while maintaining appropriate safeguards for over- recovering services, they should also consider consolidating legislation and deregulating parts of the process to enable routine adjustments. recommendation The Treasury should write to the Committee within six months setting out a detailed plan to reduce the time and complexity involved in amending fees. A new system should encourage proportionate and incremental changes to fees and not disincentivise departments from making efficiencies which would enable fixed or reduced fees. This plan should indicate when the new arrangements will be in place and include: a. Standardised approval templates and timelines; risk-based consultation and oversight principles, and b. A legislative review to remove unnecessary barriers and enable pro Show less

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the recommendation and will implement new arrangements to reduce the time and complexity involved in amending fees.

HM Treasury

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6 Accepted

Treasury's reliance on departmental accounting officers creates inconsistency in fee monitoring.

Recommendation

The NAO reported that Treasury places primary reliance on individual department’s accounting officers to monitor their fees and charges. Accounting officers are responsible for maintaining effective governance and internal controls, including ensuring that fees are set appropriately and disclosed in-line … Read more

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury will create a cross departmental working group to set out a comprehensive time-bound plan to be more systematic in supporting fee-charging public bodies, which will be shared with the Committee. The working group will discuss issuing operational guidance to government bodies and establish a mechanism to share good practice.

HM Treasury

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7 Accepted

Government bodies require practical examples and clearer guidance for managing fee-setting challenges.

Recommendation

The NAO highlighted that government bodies would like practical examples of how to address common operational problems, such as forecasting user demand, or when and how to reflect inflationary pressures, so they can consider options on how best to handle … Read more

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury will create a cross departmental working group to set out a comprehensive time-bound plan to support fee-charging public bodies, to be shared with the Committee, which will discuss issuing operational guidance and establishing a mechanism to share good practice.

HM Treasury

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14 Accepted

Fee amendment process is slow, complex, and lacks standardised data, undermining financial sustainability.

Recommendation

The process for amending fees across government is slow and complex as certain public bodies took an average of 63 weeks, with the longest case taking over two years. This undermines financial sustainability because it makes it harder to recover … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Treasury will write to the Committee by May 2026 to set out proposals indicating the new arrangements to reduce the time and complexity of amending fees.

HM Treasury

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15 Accepted

Slow fee amendment process prevents keeping pace with changing costs, especially during inflation.

Recommendation

The NAO reported that the current timing of the process can result in fees that fail to keep pace with changing costs, particularly during periods of high inflation.28 The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) informed us that its latest fee change … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Treasury will write to the Committee by May 2026 to set out proposals indicating the new arrangements to reduce the time and complexity of amending fees.

HM Treasury

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16 Accepted

Time-consuming fee adjustment process hinders routine, low-risk changes and consistent proposals.

Recommendation

The Treasury acknowledged that the decision-making process is time-consuming and disproportionate for low-risk, routine adjustments like inflation-linked increases. It told us it will introduce a standardised template, adopted from the Environment Agency’s approach, with the aim of improving completeness and … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Treasury will write to the Committee by May 2026 to set out proposals indicating the new arrangements to reduce the time and complexity of amending fees.

HM Treasury

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17 Accepted

Legislative scheduling for fee changes adds uncertainty and delays, competing for Parliamentary time.

Recommendation

The Treasury highlighted that the legislative scheduling adds uncertainty, particularly where secondary legislation must compete for Parliamentary time. We asked if the process could be simplified without diminishing parliamentary scrutiny, such as through consolidation of primary legislation to remove the … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Treasury will write to the Committee by May 2026 to set out proposals indicating the new arrangements to reduce the time and complexity of amending fees.

HM Treasury

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25 Accepted

Treasury acknowledges reactive efficiency system and plans a more proactive, strategic approach.

Recommendation

The Treasury acknowledged that its system is largely reactive rather than strategic, relying on accounting officers’ general duty in respect of value for money, and periodic spending review targets to drive efficiency. It recognised the potential of emerging technologies, such … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government claims that the Government Efficiency Framework (GEF) already provides extensive guidance for efficiency in the fee-setting framework and endorses public sector organisations to use the framework as a guiding set of principles on how they progress and track efficiency.

HM Treasury

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Conclusions (1)

Observations and findings

8 Conclusion Accepted

We heard charging bodies would value more signposting of where to go for expert advice and support and to learn from others’ experience. DVLA told us that more can be done to share good practice and that it is important to get those responsible for fees together to talk about …

Government Response Summary

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