Off-Payroll Arrangements in the Public Sector

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215048684
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (486 download)

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Book Synopsis Off-Payroll Arrangements in the Public Sector by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Off-Payroll Arrangements in the Public Sector written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-10-05 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 2012 HM Treasury published its report on the use of off-payroll arrangements in central government ("Review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees", Cm. 8350, ISBN 9780101835022). This showed that over 2,400 staff, each earning more than £58,200 a year, were being paid 'off-payroll' - a practice which generates suspicions of complicity in tax avoidance and which fails to meet the standards expected of public officials. The review's recommendations should go some way to reducing the prevalence of the practice, yet the scope of the review was limited in scope to central government and did not cover other public services, like Local Government, the NHS and the BBC. Some doubts about the Treasury's proposals remain. The Review stated that off-payroll arrangements can be used in 'exceptional circumstances' but does not clarify what these exceptional circumstances are. It also recommended that departments seek assurance that those staff who remain off-payroll are paying the appropriate amount of tax, but did not specify how departments could or should do this. Ultimately, whether those paid off-payroll are paying the right amount of tax is dependent on HM Revenue & Customs properly enforcing tax rules to ensure employees pay tax as employees. However, HM Revenue & Customs has progressively reduced its enforcement of the legislation designed to eliminate the avoidance of tax and National Insurance Contributions through the use of intermediaries, such as personal service companies, putting at risk any deterrent effect the rules might have on tax avoidance

House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Whole of Government Accounts 2011-12 - HC 667

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215064868
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (648 download)

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Book Synopsis House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Whole of Government Accounts 2011-12 - HC 667 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Whole of Government Accounts 2011-12 - HC 667 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Whole of Government Accounts for 2011-12 presents the combined financial activities of some 3,000 organisations. It provides vital data on which Government needs to act. Key issues have been identified, such as the £19.4 billion liability for clinical negligence claims. But it is frustrating to see other issues seemingly ignored in long-term policy making and spending decisions. In one year, the public sector was defrauded of over £20 billion and the tax gap rose to £35 billion. The financial liabilities for dealing with nuclear waste also keep growing. There is room for improvement in the document itself and how it is used. Users find it hard to understand, for example, why the Government debt and deficit highlighted in the WGA differ from those reported in the ONS's National Accounts. Also, by changing definitions in its commentary published alongside the WGA, the Treasury makes it difficult to track changes over time. The Treasury's introduction in the commentary of a new concept of so-called 'direct' expenditure leaves out key costs such as the interest paid on the National Debt. The publicly owned and controlled bodies - such as Network Rail and the taxpayer owned banks - are still being excluded, in defiance of normal accounting rules. The usefulness of the WGA is also being limited by the length of time it takes to produce the document and by poor quality data from some of the bodies. The accounts have again been qualified over the completeness, timeliness and accuracy of the information supplied for schools and academies

Treasury Minutes on the Fifth, the Eleventh to the Thirteenth and the Fifteenth to the Sixteenth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session: 2012-13

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780101853422
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (534 download)

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Book Synopsis Treasury Minutes on the Fifth, the Eleventh to the Thirteenth and the Fifteenth to the Sixteenth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session: 2012-13 by : Great Britain. Treasury

Download or read book Treasury Minutes on the Fifth, the Eleventh to the Thirteenth and the Fifteenth to the Sixteenth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session: 2012-13 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-21 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dated January 2013. The reports published as HC 104 (ISBN 9780215047670), HC 288 (ISBN 9780215047632), HC 532 (ISBN 9780215048684), HC 388 (ISBN 9780215048691), HC 103 (ISBN 9780215048653); HC 389 (ISBN 9780215049704)

Off-Payroll Tax Handbook

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781526512147
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (121 download)

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Book Synopsis Off-Payroll Tax Handbook by : Kye Burchmore

Download or read book Off-Payroll Tax Handbook written by Kye Burchmore and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Off-Payroll Tax Handbook is an indispensable guide to the tax and legal implications of the new IR35 legislation to be implemented for the public sector in 2017 and for the private sector in April 2021. A useful resource for practitioners advising their clients on how to ensure they are well prepared for the new regime, this title provides guidance on handling IR35 status determination challenges, as well as providing steps needed to prevent costly disputes. Through the use of examples, flow charts and case studies, it outlines key employment status cases and illustrates how both public and private sector rules will apply for different types of individual engagements.

Review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees

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Author :
Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780101835022
Total Pages : 24 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees by : Great BritainH.M. Treasury

Download or read book Review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees written by Great BritainH.M. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impetus for this review concerns questions about the tax arrangements of senior public sector appointees. Findings have revealed a lack of transparency around such tax arrangements, with over 2400 staff identified as off the regular payroll engagements who are employed by central government departments and their associated bodies. About 85% are engaged for longer than six months. Although such arrangements maybe appropriate, it is not absolutely clear to the employer whether a particular individual is paying the right amount of tax and National Insurance in relation to their role. To ensure future tax transparency in this regard, the review has set out a three pronged approach: (i) The most senior staff to be on the payroll; (ii) Employers to ensure that they have the right to seek assurance about the tax arrangements of long-term specialist contractors; (iii) Monitoring after one year, with sanctions applied to Government departments that have not complied with these recommendations.

Personal Service Companies - HL 160

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 0108553590
Total Pages : 72 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis Personal Service Companies - HL 160 by : The Stationery Office

Download or read book Personal Service Companies - HL 160 written by The Stationery Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term 'personal service company' is not defined in law. It is understood generally to mean a limited company, the sole or main shareholder of which is also its director, who, instead of working directly for clients, or taking up employment with other businesses, operates through his company. The company contracts with clients, either directly or through an agency, to supply the services of its director. There are many reasons for the use of personal service companies, including the possibility of reducing tax and national insurance bills. The Government's anti-avoidance legislation, often referred to as IR35, is complex and raises its own problems. The report is not intended to be a comprehensive reference work; instead it focuses on five main areas: (1) The use of personal service companies, relevant legislation and recent trends; (2) the continuing viability of the IR35 legislation; (3) HMRC's administration and the effect of recent reforms; (4) implications for the lower-paid; (5) the public sector. The Committee point to the absence of reliable information collected by HMRC. This could be rectified by amending the personal tax return and employer year end declaration and making the questions on service companies compulsory, rather than optional. HMRC failed to demonstrate that they had a sound basis for the £550m of tax and national insurance that they cited as being at risk if IR35 were to be abolished or suspended. Low-paid workers may not be aware that employment by these companies means they have fewer employment rights.

HC 678 - Whole of Government Accounts 2012-13

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 0215080963
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis HC 678 - Whole of Government Accounts 2012-13 by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book HC 678 - Whole of Government Accounts 2012-13 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the fourth WGA to be published and it remains the most comprehensive picture of the government's income, expenditures, assets and liabilities that is available. Parliament lacks real visibility over the government's delivery of its deficit reduction measures under the current Spending Review. The government has currently delivered only half of its planned measures to balance public sector income and expenditure (fiscal consolidation measures). The experience in the delivery of consolidation measures to date, where for example the planned increases in tax revenues have not been realised, also show that the government will face a significant challenge in delivering the next phase of the consolidation. In assessing the government's performance in its management of public finances, the WGA is now an essential tool in supporting Parliamentary accountability. The Treasury has been slow in ensuring that all parts of the public sector comply with the government's expectations on pay restraint, particularly in setting the pay of senior staff. The Committee welcomes the steps the Treasury has taken to ensure that 'off payroll' arrangements within central government are made more transparent and that the Treasury is sanctioning government bodies when they fail to comply with the guidance.

HC 1141 - The Work of the Committee of Public Accounts 2010-15

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 0215085779
Total Pages : 41 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis HC 1141 - The Work of the Committee of Public Accounts 2010-15 by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book HC 1141 - The Work of the Committee of Public Accounts 2010-15 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015-03-28 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report summarises the key areas of the Committee's work over the past five years. It draws out the areas where progress has been made and where their successors might wish to press in future. The Committee has assiduously followed the taxpayer's pound wherever it was spent. Since 2010 they held 276 evidence sessions and published 244 unanimous reports to hold government to account for its performance. 88% of their recommendations were accepted by departments. In many cases they successfully secured substantial changes, for example with the once secret tax avoidance industry. They secured consensus from government and from industry that private providers of public services do have a duty of care to the taxpayer, and in pushing the protection of whistleblowers further up the agenda of all government departments. By drawing attention to mistakes in the Department for Transport's procurement of the West Coast Mainline, more recent procurements for Crossrail, Thameslink and Intercity Express have all benefited from more expert advice and a more appropriate level of challenge from senior staff. After discovery in 2012-13 that 63% of calls to government call centres were to higher rate telephone numbers, the Government accepted our recommendation that telephone lines serving vulnerable and low income groups never be charged above the geographic rate and that 03 numbers should be available for all government telephone lines. They also secured a commitment to close large mental health hospitals.

British Broadcasting Commission

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215051110
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (511 download)

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Book Synopsis British Broadcasting Commission by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book British Broadcasting Commission written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-12-20 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Saturday 10 November 2012, the BBC Director General George Entwistle agreed to resign after just 54 days in the job. In order to secure his quick departure, the BBC Trust agreed to a pay-off that included 12 months' salary of £450,000, twice what he was contractually entitled to. The BBC Trust also agreed to give the former Director General 12 months' private medical cover and contribute to the cost of legal fees and public relations advice connected with his departure and his participation in the ongoing inquiries into Newsnight and Sir Jimmy Savile. The Comptroller and Auditor General offered to carry out an immediate and independent audit examination of the package, in time to inform the deliberations of this Committee but the BBC Trust refused to take that offer up. This inhibited Parliament's ability to hold the Trust to account for its use of public money and Entwistle's severance package could only be considered on the basis of information publicly available. Furthermore, since November 2010 the BBC has made severance payments to 10 other senior managers at a total cost of more than £4 million. These payments are excessive and completely out of keeping with public expectations about how their licence fee money is spent. It also emerged that 422 senior BBC managers received private medical cover worth £667,489 as part of their remuneration packages in 2012. The Comptroller and Auditor General has been asked to examine severance payments and benefits for senior managers as part of his future programme of work on the BBC

Managing Budgeting in Government

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215054623
Total Pages : 34 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (546 download)

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Book Synopsis Managing Budgeting in Government by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Managing Budgeting in Government written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-08 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government needs strong budgetary systems to be able to control and manage public spending and to provide high quality public services that offer value for money to the taxpayer. The 2010 Spending Review set a four-year spending total for each department and focused on reducing public spending and delivering the coalition Government's programme. The Treasury managed the Spending Review by collating bids from departments and challenging submissions. The process built on the experience of previous CSRs and was better managed, however concerns remain. Departments and the Treasury failed to take a longer term view on spending, making cuts in those budgets that were easiest to cut. For instance, whilst Treasury improved assessment processes to be able to rank capital projects, the overall level of capital investment was cut. Resource expenditure as a whole will increase in nominal terms, albeit at a much slower rate. There were gaps in data which made it difficult to compare options or benchmark spending proposals. There were no incentives for departments to collaborate on cross-government issues. There was no evidence of clear thinking on how one decision to save money in one budget area might lead to an increase in expenditure elsewhere. Decisions on where to spend or cut rest with Ministers and cannot be divorced from the political process. But these decisions need to be informed by rational analysis. Officials must do more to provide Ministers with reliable and comparable information to help them weigh up the effect of different spending options

Restructuring of the National Offender Management Service

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215054531
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (545 download)

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Book Synopsis Restructuring of the National Offender Management Service by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Restructuring of the National Offender Management Service written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Offender Management Service directly manages 117 public prisons, manages the contracts of 14 private prisons, and is responsible for a prisoner population of around 86,000. It commissions and funds services from 35 probation trusts, which oversee approximately 165,000 offenders serving community sentences. For 2012-13, the Agency's budget is £3,401 million. The Agency achieved its savings targets of £230 million in 2011-12 and maintained its overall performance, despite an increase in the prison population. However, the Agency's savings targets of £246 million in 2012-13, £262 million in 2013-14 and £145 million in 2014-15 are challenging. The Agency believes it has scope to make the prison estate more efficient by closing older, more expensive prisons and investing in new ones. These plans, however, assume the prison population will stay at its current level. Furthermore, the Agency has not yet secured the up-front funding for the voluntary redundancies needed to bring down prison staffing costs. Unless overcrowding is addressed and staff continue to carry out offender management work it is increasingly likely that rehabilitation work needed to reduce the risk of prisoners reoffending will not be provided. The Agency has not done enough to address the risks to safety, decency and standards in prisons and in community services arising from staffing cuts implemented to meet financial targets. The Agency plans to increase the role of private firms and the third sector in probation but the probation trusts don't appear to have the infrastructure and skills they need to commission probation services from these providers effectively

Review of Select Committee Activity and Proposals for New Committee Activity

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780108550522
Total Pages : 46 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (55 download)

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Book Synopsis Review of Select Committee Activity and Proposals for New Committee Activity by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Liaison Committee

Download or read book Review of Select Committee Activity and Proposals for New Committee Activity written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Liaison Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-13 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report the Liaison Committee conducts a brief review of House of Lords policy committees, in advance of the appointment of those committees in the new Parliament

Department for Work and Pensions

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215053343
Total Pages : 54 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (533 download)

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Book Synopsis Department for Work and Pensions by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Department for Work and Pensions written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-08 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Work and Pensions is getting far too many decisions wrong on claimants' ability to work. This is at considerable cost to the taxpayer and can create misery and hardship to the claimants themselves. This poor decision-making is damaging public confidence and generating a lot of criticism of the Department's contractor for medical assessments, Atos Healthcare - but most of the problems lie firmly within the DWP. The Department's view that appeals against decisions are an inherent part of the process is unduly complacent. Nearly 40 per cent of appeals are successful, with a third of those successful appeals involving no new evidence. The Work Capability Assessment process hits the most vulnerable claimants hardest. The one size fits all approach fails to account adequately for mental health conditions or those which are rare or fluctuating. While the Department has started to improve, the process is still too inflexible and too often is so stressful for applicants that their health simply gets worse. A key problem is that the Department has been unable to create a competitive market for medical assessment providers, leaving Atos in the position of being a near monopoly supplier. The Department is too often just accepting what Atos tells it. It seems reluctant to challenge the contractor. It has failed to withhold payment for poor performance and rarely checked that it is being correctly charged. The Department also cannot explain how the profits being made by Atos reflect the limited risk that it bears

Department of Health

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215053312
Total Pages : 54 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (533 download)

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Book Synopsis Department of Health by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Department of Health written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-07 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The strategic management of health resources across the East of England Strategic Health Authority has failed. Ultimate responsibility for this rests with the Department of Health. For many years to come, the local community as well as the NHS and taxpayers will have to live with the consequences of separate decisions to build a new PFI hospital at Peterborough and to award a franchise to a private company to run the nearby Hinchingbrooke hospital. These decisions were taken separately despite the fact that the two hospitals are only 24 miles apart in an area where the NHS has long acknowledged that healthcare provision is running ahead of local needs. The reality is that there is not enough funding there for both Trusts to thrive as currently configured. Their financial viability will be further eroded if more people are treated outside hospitals, in line with present and past government policy. Circle Healthcare, the franchisee of Hinchingbrooke, has not achieved its expected savings in its first few months and its Chief Executive has already left. The bid was not properly risk-assessed and the successful bidder was encouraged to submit over-optimistic savings projections. The PFI deal for Peterborough and Stamford PFI hospital has proved catastrophic, with the Department now being forced to pay out nearly £1 million a week of taxpayers' money to keep the Trust afloat. Both Trusts will have to make unprecedented levels of savings to become viable. In Peterborough and Stamford's case, this won't be enough

Funding for Local Transport

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215053275
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (532 download)

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Book Synopsis Funding for Local Transport by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Funding for Local Transport written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Transport works with local partners to deliver many of its policies. Local authorities play a key role in planning and commissioning transport services, such as bus and light rail, and providing and maintaining roads and other local infrastructure. They spent a total of £8.5 billion on transport in 2010-11. The Department provided around a quarter of this (£2.2 billion), with the rest raised locally from council tax, from the £411 million surplus raised from parking levies, or from the Department for Communities and Local Government formula grant. In 2011-12 the Department provided £1.2 billion to local authorities for highways maintenance and small transport projects in the form of two un-ringfenced formula-based grants. The Department does not monitor how un-ringfenced grants are spent and there is insufficient information to determine the impact of the Department's contribution on local authorities' spending decisions and therefore to achieving the Department's objectives. The Department plans to devolve more control over its funding to the local level (raising the proportion of resources which are not ringfenced portion from 60% to around 80%); and new local transport bodies will take on some decision-making responsibilities previously held centrally. Full details of how the new system will work are still to be determined and there is uncertainty over how the arrangements will work in practice.

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215053237
Total Pages : 46 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (532 download)

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Book Synopsis Nuclear Decommissioning Authority by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book Nuclear Decommissioning Authority written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-04 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (the Authority) was set up in 2005 with the specific remit to tackle the UK's nuclear legacy. Sellafield is run for the Authority by Sellafield Limited. In November 2008, the Authority contracted with an international consortium-Nuclear Management Partners Limited-to improve Sellafield Limited's management of the site, including the development of an improved lifetime plan. Over several decades, successive governments have been guilty of failing to tackle issues on the site. Deadlines for cleaning up Sellafield have been missed, while total lifetime costs for decommissioning the site continue to rise each year and now stand at £67.5 billion. The Authority believes it now has a credible plan for decommissioning Sellafield and expects Sellafield Limited to start retrieving hazardous waste currently held in legacy facilities in 2015. Nonetheless, given the track record on the site and given that only 2 of the 14 major projects were being delivered on or ahead of schedule in 2011-12, the Committee is not yet convinced that this date will be met or that sufficient progress is being made. Basic project management failings continue to cause delays and increase costs, while doubts remain over the robustness of the plan, in particular whether the Authority is progressing the development of the geological disposal facility as quickly as possible. Nor is the Committee convinced that taxpayers are getting a good deal from the Authority's arrangement with Nuclear Management Partners. And taxpayers currently bear the financial risks of delays and cost increases.

HMRC

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Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215055231
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (552 download)

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Book Synopsis HMRC by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Download or read book HMRC written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-18 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2011-12, 20 million phone calls to HMRC were not answered. It cost the callers £136 million while they waited to speak to an adviser. And, against its target of responding to 80% of letters within 15 days, the department managed to reply to just 66%. Officials are beginning to realize that good customer service lies at the heart of any strategy to maximize revenues while cutting costs. Callers will no longer be forced to use the more expensive 0845 numbers. Other planned changes include the resolution of more queries first time and a call-back service where this is not possible. However, HMRC's new target of answering 80% of calls within five minutes is still woefully short of the industry standard of answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds. Just how the department is going to improve standards of customer service, given the prospect of its having fewer staff and receiving a higher volume of calls, is open to question. HMRC plans to cut the number of customer-facing staff by a third by 2015. At the same time, the stresses associated with introducing the Real Time Information System, Universal Credit and changes to child benefit are likely to drive up the number of phone calls to the department. HMRC is also to close all of its 281 enquiry centres which give face-to-face advice to customers. HMRC considers that it will be able to improve service standards by using its staff more flexibly. It may need to put in additional resources, though, to avoid the kind of plummeting performance we have seen in the past