Inquiries · Recommendations

Recommendations: RHI Inquiry

1,814 tracked recommendations 35 inquiries 45 match current filters

Recommendations issued by UK statutory and non-statutory inquiries, with their tracked government response and supporting evidence.

Recommendations

45 of 1,814

Code	Recommendation	Inquiry	Response
RHI-1	Policy Skills Assessment A new policy at its earliest stage should be subject to a rigorous process to determine whether the Northern Ireland devolved administration …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-2	Novel Policy Scrutiny Novel, potentially volatile and untested initiatives should in future be scrutinised thoroughly, well ahead of ministerial and business case approval. The Inquiry …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-3	Policy Skills Training As far as practicable, Northern Ireland Civil Service teams working on policies, particularly new and untested initiatives, should be trained and supported …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-4	Quality of Ministerial Advice A lesson from the RHI experience is that action is needed to raise and sustain the quality of advice to Ministers and …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-5	Ministerial Training and Support One role of Ministers in a democratic system is to decide on policies and they can only do so effectively if they …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-6	Special Adviser Role Clarity (i) Under existing arrangements, Northern Ireland Ministers should be responsible for their Special Advisers. (ii) New or returning Ministers should be invited …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-7	Special Adviser Induction There should be a clearly defined induction process for new Special Advisers, shared by the appointing Minister and the relevant Permanent Secretary, …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-8	Job-Specific Recruitment A fundamental shift is needed in the approach used within the Northern Ireland Civil Service with regard to recruitment and selection for …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-9	Commercial Awareness Commercial and business awareness amongst policy officials, particularly those working in roles relating to the economy of Northern Ireland, must be improved. …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-10	External Consultants Guidance The Northern Ireland Civil Service should consider what changes are needed to its guidance and practices on the use of external consultants …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-11	Project Management Disciplines Best practice project and risk management disciplines should be the default practice within the Northern Ireland Civil Service when developing novel and …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-12	Invest NI and SIB Collaboration The leaders of the Northern Ireland Civil Service should work with Invest Northern Ireland and the Strategic Investment Board to consider how …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-13	External Expertise on Project Boards Project boards are an essential element of project management oversight and must include individuals who can challenge and who are not directly …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-14	Risk Tracking and Reporting The risks involved in implementation of an initiative must be tracked, re-considered regularly and used to manage, improve and adjust the project …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-15	Programme Boards for Sector Coordination Co-ordination of groups of projects aiming to achieve change in a particular sector – e.g. renewable energy projects – would be stronger …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-16	Third Party Governance Where other government bodies, such as Ofgem, or contractors or other third parties are involved in the implementation of a project, the …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-17	Professional Development The Northern Ireland Civil Service should take steps to draw on best practice from other jurisdictions to provide more support for professions …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-18	Inter-Governmental Framework More generally, we recommend a Northern Ireland government-wide framework for information exchange and, where appropriate, co-operation between the Northern Ireland Civil Service, …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-19	Business Case Approval Redesign The processes within a Department for approving new expenditure and business cases including, where it forms part of that process, the role …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-20	Flexible Expenditure Rules Public expenditure rules should be sufficiently flexible so that false economies can be avoided. In order to deliver a policy objective, Departments …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-21	Sceptical Business Case Scrutiny The Department of Finance's distinctive role in scrutinising business cases should be searching and sceptical, guarding against over-reliance on the assurances offered …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-22	Proactive DoF Monitoring Particularly where a policy initiative is demand-led, novel, complex and/or likely to be lengthy, consideration should be given to increasing Department of …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-23	Ministerial Notification of Approval Conditions Ministers should always be advised of any conditions attached to the approval of a policy or project by the Department of Finance. …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-24	Staff Move Sequencing Senior managers in the Civil Service must take responsibility for guiding and, where necessary, sequencing the timing of staff moves so that …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-25	Ministerial Decision-Making In light of their legal responsibility to direct and control the Department for which they are responsible, and their democratic accountability to …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-26	Meeting Records Notes of significant meetings between officials and ministers, particularly those affecting decision-making and spending, must be taken and retained. The responsibility for …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-27	Private Office Record Keeping Ministers' responses to submissions should be formally and timeously recorded and disseminated to officials by the Minister's Private Office. That responsibility should …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-28	Record Keeping Culture and Audit The culture and practice of record keeping and access to records within the Northern Ireland Civil Service needs to change so that …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-29	Departmental Finance Functions The finance function within a Department should exert the necessary authority and capability to fulfil the requirements of 'Managing Public Money Northern …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-30	Budget Holder Financial Training Civil servants who are responsible for holding and monitoring a budget should have to demonstrate core requirements in financial literacy and an …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-31	Value for Money Priority Any imperative to spend a budget within a given timeframe should not be allowed to take precedence over how that budget is …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-32a	Governance Systems Review The checks and balances within a Department designed to catch problems early failed over many years in DETI to identify certain of …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-32b	Civil Servants Raising Concerns Civil servants should be encouraged not to feel in any way inhibited about disclosing possible or emerging problems, raising concerns, negative aspects …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-33	HMT Communication Protocol The protocol for relations with HMT, namely that the Northern Ireland Department of Finance must be the sole conduit of formal communication, …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-34	Rapid Response Capacity The Northern Ireland Civil Service should have regard to best practice elsewhere about how to respond effectively when serious problems emerge, such …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-35	Early Warning Systems Better systems are needed for spotting early warnings and concerns from the public and businesses that something unexpected could be happening or …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-36	Learning from Failures The Northern Ireland Civil Service should develop a better process to learn from past failures, one that goes beyond the traditional method …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-37	Reduce Organisational Silos In keeping with the spirit of the Ministerial Pledge of Office, the Northern Ireland political parties, supported by the Northern Ireland Civil …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-38	Assembly Committee Scrutiny The Inquiry recommends that the Northern Ireland Assembly should strengthen the scrutiny role of Assembly Committees, reviewing whether the existing balance between …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted in Part
RHI-39	Ministerial Familiarity with Legislation Any Minister presenting the Assembly with legislation for approval should sufficiently read and familiarise themselves with that legislation and ensure an adequate …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-40	Declaration of Interests Ministers, Special Advisers and officials in Northern Ireland government Departments should declare their interests annually in writing. When any conflict of interest …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-41	Special Adviser Code of Conduct Revision The Special Adviser Code of Conduct should be revised. How these changes are achieved will need to be a matter for the …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-42	Ministerial Code Revision The Code of Conduct issued to Northern Ireland Ministers in 2007 (contained within the Northern Ireland Ministerial Code 2006) should be revised …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted
RHI-43	Independent Compliance Assessment In addition, the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly ought, in the Inquiry's view, to give due consideration to an independent mechanism to …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Not Accepted
RHI-44	NIAO Progress Assessment Role The Inquiry recommends a role in future for the Northern Ireland Audit Office in assessing and validating the extent of progress in …	RHI Inquiry (2020)	Accepted