Serious Fraud Office Resource Accounts 2008 09

Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher : The Stationery Office
ISBN 13 : 9780215556042
Total Pages : 52 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (56 download)

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Download or read book Ministry of Justice financial management written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-01-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ministry of Justice delivers its services through a wide range of arm's length bodies and agencies, including the courts, prisons and probation services. The Ministry's Spending Review settlement requires a 23% reduction to its resource budget over the next four years. The Ministry has a range of financial management processes in place but lacks a consistent approach across its business, and to date it has not integrated financial management into its policy and operational workings. The Ministry needs to implement its Spending Review settlement on the basis of a full understanding of the cost and value of its services, so that financial cuts are best targeted to minimise the impact on frontline services. The Ministry and its arm's length bodies currently lack the detailed information they would need to do this. A comprehensive understanding of the costs and value of services must be a priority. For its arm's length bodies, having a clear direction, the details of which are formally agreed by both parties, is essential as is strong leadership and a shared sense of purpose. The Ministry now needs to oversee the performance of its arm's length bodies, such as framework documents, operational reviews, and accountability meetings. Fee recovery and fines collection have to be priority areas for improvement and the need to improve recovery rates where it does not currently recover the full cost of services provided. On fines collection, there was little sign of the sustained improvement promised when the Committee last took evidence in 2006.