Accountability in small government bodies

To make compliance with the functional standards more meaningful for small bodies, the Cabinet Office should work with the centres of the government functions to: (a) review the functional frameworks and checklists to ensure that they are appropriate to organisations with simple, less significant and less risky activities.

To make compliance with the functional standards more meaningful for small bodies, the Cabinet Office should work with the centres of the government functions to: (b) test existing and any proposed future versions of these documents with small bodies and, where appropriate, amend them based on their feedback.

To make compliance with the functional standards more meaningful for small bodies, the Cabinet Office should work with the centres of the government functions to: (c) make it easier for small bodies to access, understand and comply with the functional standards, for example by: ? including more case studies and examples of bodies of different sizes and complexity in the functional guidance; ? including guidance in the continuous improvement assessment frameworks on how ALBs and their sponsor departments can apply and flex the functional standards in a proportionate way; ? featuring the Central Government?s Assurance Directory, which includes a list of functional frameworks and checklists, more prominently on the GOV.UK webpages on government functions; and ? considering, where possible, how functional standards, continuous improvement frameworks and guidance could be featured more prominently in the training and induction offer for civil servants.

To ensure that the financial reporting requirements for small bodies are meaningful and proportionate, HM Treasury should: (d) work with departments to develop a consistent approach to deciding which organisations may be eligible for a small body reporting regime. This should consider each body?s size, complexity and level of risk, and should involve collaboration with departments.

To ensure that the financial reporting requirements for small bodies are meaningful and proportionate, HM Treasury should: (e) explore issuing streamlined reporting and disclosure requirements for ARAs, to be applied to organisations with simple operations and low risk to public money. These may involve, for instance, complying with a smaller set of requirements, using other avenues than ARAs to disclose some non financial information, reporting on certain low-risk areas every two or three years rather than annually, or giving departments the ability to reward well run ALBs by allowing them to comply with streamlined reporting and disclosure requirements.