Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Thirty-Second Report - Delivering value from government investment in major projects
Public Accounts Committee
HC 456
Published 15 May 2024
Recommendations
2
Not Addressed
Develop a plan to incentivise departments to conduct high-quality, independent major project evaluations.
Recommendation
Government departments still have few incentives to commission and carry out high-quality evaluations of major projects. High quality evaluation is an important means of providing evidence about what works, transparency about what value a project has produced, and making the …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation to develop a plan for incentivising evaluations, but its response discusses supplier and market engagement with SMEs and TechUK, which is irrelevant to the committee's specific request for an evaluation plan.
HM Treasury
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3
Not Addressed
Analyse and issue guidance on governance for effective cross-government major projects.
Recommendation
There are signs of improved cross-government working but government still struggles to establish effective governance and accountability arrangements on the most complex projects where multiple departments are involved. In our February 2024 report on cross-government working in general we concluded …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation to analyze governance structures for cross-government working and issue guidance. However, its response focuses on the existing Digital, Data and Technology Playbook for managing digital projects, rather than addressing the broader request for general cross-government working guidance.
HM Treasury
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6
Not Addressed
Outline plans for embedding cross-government learning in future major projects.
Recommendation
Government departments do not routinely learn lessons from their own projects or those of other departments, so are missing opportunities to improve effectiveness and efficiency of future projects. Applying learning about what has been successful in major project delivery can …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation to outline plans for embedding cross-government learning. However, its response outlines reviews of commercial and digital functional standards, development of a standard taxonomy, and reviews of controls and assurance frameworks, which are not direct plans for cross-government learning.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (4)
1
Conclusion
Not Addressed
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and HM Treasury.1
Government Response Summary
The committee item is a factual statement about taking evidence from the IPA and HM Treasury. The government responds by agreeing to the 'recommendation' and detailing actions related to digital functions, a Technical Design Authority, and strategic supplier relationship management, which is irrelevant to the original statement.
7
Conclusion
Not Addressed
High quality evaluation is an important means of providing evidence about what works and transparency about what value a project has produced. In our May 2022 report on government’s use of evaluation and modelling, we stated: “Without the right incentives, improvements to oversight and culture, and addressing challenges such as …
Government Response Summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response details its efforts to encourage international collaboration on antimicrobial products and antibiotic innovation, including commissioning an evaluability assessment from July 2025 to early 2026. This does not address the committee's conclusion on the importance of high-quality evaluation for major government projects.
8
Conclusion
Not Addressed
There are too few evaluations of government’s major projects. As we pointed out in our May 2022 report on the use of evaluation and modelling in government, in 2019, only 8% of £432 billion of spend on major projects had robust impact evaluation plans in place, and 64% of spend …
Government Response Summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response focuses entirely on making public health a statutory objective for water companies, regulating sludge, and tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in wastewater, with a White Paper planned for Autumn 2025. This does not address the committee's conclusion about the lack of evaluations for major government projects.
9
Conclusion
Not Addressed
In our May 2022 report on evaluation, we pointed out that the same barriers to departments doing more evaluations had been in place since 2013. These include a lack of political engagement and a lack of incentives for departments to produce evaluations. HM Treasury told us that it still has …
Government Response Summary
Despite stating agreement, the government's response details actions related to monitoring healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans and animals, including a new data dashboard from UKHSA by Autumn 2025 and novel AMR surveillance pilots in animals until 2029. This does not address the committee's conclusion about barriers to government project evaluations.