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Business support schemes

This report examines the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s management of its business support schemes.

Published: 15 Jan 2020 Recommendations: 7 Type: Value for Money NAO confirmed: 7 Department: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Dept: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Topics: Business and industryEconomic growthPerformance managementProject and service delivery nao.org.uk →

Recommendations

7 items
7 accepted 7 implemented

Recommendation 1

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 21, point a

[The] Department should ensure that from March 2020, any new business support scheme:
a) has clear objectives in place from the outset that are measurable and timebound, enabling a scheme’s progress to be assessed;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2020-21 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 21, point b

b) considers alternative ways of achieving its objectives, including a meaningful estimate of the value for money of viable alternatives;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2020-21 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 3

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 21, point c

c) has a monitoring plan that shows how interim measures link to the scheme’s ultimate objectives if these are not immediately measurable; and

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2020-21 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 4

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 21, point d

d) sets out plans for evaluation, including how it will ensure such assessment is supported by robust evidence of the impact against the criteria in its updated evaluation framework.

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2020-21 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 5

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 22, point e

In its management of its overall portfolio of business support schemes, the Department should:
e) coordinate a review of its schemes to determine their strategic fit with the Industrial Strategy and what consequent changes are required by July 2020;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2021-22 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 6

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 22, point f

f) develop some standard metrics across schemes that have broadly similar aims, to enable better comparison of their effectiveness by May 2020. This should include routine monitoring of businesses’ views; and

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2023-24 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 7

Addressee: Department for Business and Trade · Source location: Page 14, paragraph 22, point g

g) monitor schemes' compliance with the good-practice principles of scheme management that we have set out in this report and use this to drive improvements.

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2024-25 · Confirmed by NAO

Public Accounts Committee follow-up

1 report

The Public Accounts Committee examined this NAO report and published its own recommendations. The government responds to PAC recommendations via Treasury Minutes.