Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 Securing value for money through scrutiny Parliament and HM Treasury Sylvia Thomson THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 Principles of Parliamentary control Only Parliament supplies money for public bodies to spend The Treasury controls what is spent and how it is spent Fundamental Principle is Personal Accountability of the Accounting Officer THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 Evolution of control: Regularity and Propriety Regularity is the requirement for all items of expenditure and receipts to be dealt with in accordance with the legislation authorising them, any applicable delegated authority and the rules of Government Accounting Propriety is the further requirement that expenditure and receipts should be dealt with in accordance with Parliament’s intentions and the principles of Parliamentary control, including the conventions agreed with Parliament (and in particular the Public Accounts Committee). ‘Parliament’s intentions’ include expectations about the manner in which business shall be conducted. THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 Evolution of control: Efficiency, Economy, Effectiveness, Value for money Efficiency = the most output for least input Effectiveness = the best outcome, the least risk Economy = the least cost, taking all costs into account Value for Money = best outcome for public THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 Value for money Value for money is the optimum combination of whole life costs and quality of how a government policy is implemented –The more innovative the policy the more difficult the calculation –Investment Appraisal, properly conducted, is the clearest way to demonstrate Value for Money but requires difficult judgments on the zero option, the discount rate and the time period THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 The Audit Process THIRD SECTOR PARTNER Expenditure Audit plan agreedDeptNAOHMT Terms of reference agreedxx? Field Workxx Draft reportxx Departmental responsexxx Final reportxxx Treasury Minutexx PAC scrutinyxxx Departmental Actionxx Follow up reportxxx

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 The PAC: Adding Value to Value for Money Scrutiny “The Government takes the Committee’s recommendations seriously as the fruit of the accountability process. The best proof of that is the vast majority of the Committee’s recommendations have been acted upon” (Government response to the 17 th report ‘Achieving value for money in public service’, quoted in ‘Holding Government to account: 150 years of the Committee of Public Accounts‘) THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 End THIRD SECTOR PARTNER

Public Accounts Committees 22 October 2013 template THIRD SECTOR PARTNER