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The Procurement Of Goods And Services By Hm Prison Service
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Book Synopsis The Procurement of Goods and Services by H. M. Prison Service by : Great Britain. National Audit Office
Download or read book The Procurement of Goods and Services by H. M. Prison Service written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since a critical 2003 National Audit Office report (HC 562 session 2002-03, ISBN 9780102921250) the Prison Service has implemented a new procurement strategy, led by a new centralised professional procurement team backed up by regional purchasing units which negotiate central contracts for a range of goods and services. At the same time the Prison Service has introduced a shared service centre to provide administrative functions, including purchasing, for prisons. The implementation of these two reforms has enabled the Prison Service to make significant savings in both purchasing and administrative costs. As a result of the changes, prisons now receive more consistent supplies of goods and services often at much lower prices than before. The progress made by the Prison Service has been recognised by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply with two awards for excellence in 2006 and 2007. The Prison Service is still capable of making further savings. In the near term it should concentrate its efforts on bringing more expenditure under the remit of its nationally negotiated contracts, and help to improve compliance by prisons with the new arrangements by further communicating the benefits of its national procurement approach.
Book Synopsis The Procurement of Goods and Services by HM Prison Service by :
Download or read book The Procurement of Goods and Services by HM Prison Service written by and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report the Committee of Public Accounts revisits the Prison Service's procurement system five years after publishing a critical report on it (41st report, session 2002-03, HC 676, ISBN 9780215012647). The Committee notes that the Service has responded positively and decisively. It has implemented a new strategy and introduced a centralised profession al procurement team, supported by five regional procurement teams and a new information technology system. As a direct result of implementing the Committee's recommendations the Service has generated cash savings of £120 million to 2007-08. Whenever problems have been encountered, the Service has addressed them promptly, including difficulties in phasing in its new computer system. Compliance with laid down procedures is being tightened, to ensure that all areas of the Service utilise the procurement system as effectively and efficiently as possible. The Ministry of Justice announced in October 2008 that it is to centralise procurement across the Ministry into a single function, which would include the Prison Service. With a potential budget of £2.5 billion, the new procurement function offers the opportunity to secure substantial savings.
Book Synopsis Financial management report 2011 by : Great Britain: National Audit Office
Download or read book Financial management report 2011 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-11-23 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financial management at the Ministry of Justice has improved considerably since the National Audit Office last examined this subject in 2010 (HC 187, ISBN 9780102965339). The Ministry now has effective governance structures in place and, in 2010-11, managed its money far more effectively, allowing it to redeploy funds to where they were most needed. Financial management is now much more central to the operation of the organisation and the quality and consistency of financial planning and forecasting have improved. Financial information for decision making is more relevant and useful, with the Ministry's planning work allowing it to bring together a wide range of business information to estimate the financial implications of its workload. It has also improved oversight of its arm's-length bodies. The Ministry still has gaps in financial reporting skills and some of its underlying systems need further improvement. It was one of only two government departments that failed to produce their financial accounts by the 2011 summer Parliamentary recess, mainly due to the accounts for the National Offender Management Service being produced late. The Legal Services Commission, an arm's-length body of the MOJ, had the audit opinion on its 2010-11 accounts qualified owing to the potential level of error, put at an estimated £50 million. There has also been little change in how the Ministry monitors and collects assets due under confiscation orders, with the amount of outstanding debt having increased by almost £400 million in 2010-11.
Book Synopsis National Offender Management Service by : Great Britain. National Audit Office
Download or read book National Offender Management Service written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maintaining prisons at a safe and acceptable standard is an expensive and complex undertaking. This National Audit Office investigation of maintenance and upkeep of the UK prisons finds that the National Offender Management Service Executive Agency (NOMS) has obtained good value for money from its expenditure on prison maintenance. In spite of an increasing prisoner population - over 73,000 people held in custody in public sector prisons in England and Wales in 2007-08 - spending has been kept at around £320 million in recent years. Nevertheless, the Agency Service could improve its plans for maintaining assets over their economic life and how it manages risks to the effective utilisation of its assets.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Liaison Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215544742 Total Pages :164 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (447 download)
Book Synopsis The work of committees in 2008-09 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Liaison Committee
Download or read book The work of committees in 2008-09 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Liaison Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-16 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: work of committees In 2008-09 : Second report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal minutes and Appendices
Author :House of Commons Public Accounts Commi Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215529213 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (292 download)
Book Synopsis Hm Revenue and Customs by : House of Commons Public Accounts Commi
Download or read book Hm Revenue and Customs written by House of Commons Public Accounts Commi and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-03-24 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report the Committee of Public Accounts examines HM Revenue and Customs' (the Department) administration of tax credits and also examines the Department on its collection of income tax through PAYE and Self Assessment. The Department overpaid £7.3 billion in the first four years of the tax credits scheme and underpaid more than £2.0 billion. By the end of March 2008, it had collected £2.7 billion (37 per cent) of this debt and written off £1 billion (14 per cent). £3.6 billion of the total of overpayments are outstanding and the Department is unlikely to recover £1.8 billion. Overpayments continue to affect many people, including some of the most vulnerable in society. Claimants are not given the support they need in making claims and too much is assumed on the part of claimants in their understanding the complex tax credits system. Tax credits suffer from high rates of error and fraud: in 2006-07 claimant error and fraud is estimated to have led to incorrect payments of between £1.31 billion and £1.54 billion. In 2007-08, the Department collected £225 billion in income tax and national insurance contributions through the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. The planned transfer of the administration of PAYE to its National Insurance Recording System has been delayed, adding to the backlog of tax cases - currently 16 million - that must be checked manually. In 2007-08, the Department collected £30.2 billion (net) through the Self Assessment system. A total of 46 per cent of Self Assessment returns were filed online, significantly exceeding the 35 per cent target, though some 34 per cent of filed returns may be inaccurate, putting between £2.9 billion to £3.7 billion tax at risk.
Author :House of Commons Public Accounts Committ Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215529763 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (297 download)
Book Synopsis Central Government's Management of Service Contracts by : House of Commons Public Accounts Committ
Download or read book Central Government's Management of Service Contracts written by House of Commons Public Accounts Committ and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08, central government spent over £12 billion on service contracts, primarily in the areas of information and communication technology, facilities management and business process outsourcing, and an estimated £240 million on managing these contracts. In most cases central government monitors the performance of its suppliers, but it makes limited use of financial incentives to encourage suppliers to improve performance and does not always apply financial penalties where suppliers under-performed. Testing of value for money of ongoing services and contract changes is variable. Planning and governance is one of the weaker areas of contract management. Less than half the organisations surveyed had an individual with overall responsibility for contract management, and there was no documented plan for managing 28 per cent of contracts. In addition, many contracts do not have in place some or all of the elements of good practice risk management. No commercial director/head of procurement rated the level of resources allocated to the management of their major contracts as 'good', and 22 per cent of contract managers considered they did not have time to perform their responsibilities well. Most contract managers had undertaken relevant training, although 60 per cent of organisations did not provide a structured training programme for their staff. The Office of Government Commerce is to issue further guidance on contract management in April 2009, building on the good practice framework it published jointly with the National Audit Office, and it is working to improve the provision of training on contract management. It is also extending its monitoring of major suppliers to government, and is reviewing recent examples of service failure where contractors failed to perform to identify lessons for the future.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530288 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (32 download)
Book Synopsis The Department for Transport by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The Department for Transport written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2005, the Department for Transport took over responsibility for passenger rail franchising from the Strategic Rail Authority. Eight franchises, half of the 16 franchises currently in operation across the country, have been re-let, with the train operator on six out of the eight franchises being changed. The Department specifies the minimum levels and quality of passenger services and agrees annual levels of subsidy or premium which it will pay to, or receive from, each train operator for franchise terms of typically 7-10 years. It has announced plans to add a total of 1,300 additional rail carriages to operator fleets across all 16 franchises to reduce overcrowding. In January 2009, the average increase of unregulated fares was 7 per cent, with some as high as 20 per cent. Special low fare offers are available, often through the internet, but those without access to a computer may need help to identify and book these fares. The Department projected that taxpayer support for the eight franchises would reduce and, in five cases, turn into payments from the train operators. If the projections are realised, a direct subsidy of £811 million to train operators in 2006-07 would be replaced by a £326 million receipt from train operators in 2011-12. Grants to Network Rail, if kept at the 2005-06 level, would mean passenger services receiving £926 million of support from the taxpayer in 2011-12, reduced from about £2,063 million in 2005-06. This reflects a policy of rebalancing service costs, with a higher proportion for the passenger and an overall reduction in subsidy. This outcome depends more on continued rail passenger growth than on fare increases.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215529282 Total Pages :36 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (292 download)
Book Synopsis Department for Work and Pensions by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee
Download or read book Department for Work and Pensions written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines recording and acting on complaints, and on the adequacy and costs of the complaints process, in the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) and Jobcentre Plus and the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service (the Agencies). The Agencies provided services to over 22 million customers in 2007-08 and around 70,000 complaints were recorded (down from 103,000 in 2003-04). A three-tiered process has been introduced, and Agencies aim to resolve most complaints at frontline staff or manager level, so as to minimise the number reaching Chief Executive level. Additionally, dissatisfied customers have two independent resolution routes if internal processes fail: the Independent Case Examiner and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Whilst only about 200 cases reach the Ombudsman, the proportion upheld at that stage is around two thirds, suggesting that there is scope for improvement in handling the most difficult cases. Staff attitude is the most common cause of complaints. Another common complaint is the cost of calling the Agencies, particularly from mobile phones. The Department has no consistent system across its operations for recording complaints, although it is currently piloting a simplified system with the intention of moving to a common system. There is also limited central monitoring of the quality of replies to customers. The cost of handling complaints is estimated by the National Audit Office to be between £4.7 million and £6.2 million, although the Department does not monitor such information. Resolving at the front line a third of the cases which currently reach 'tier three' (Agency Chief Executive level) could save the Department around £700,000.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215540492 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (44 download)
Book Synopsis Renewing the physical infrastructure of English further education colleges by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Renewing the physical infrastructure of English further education colleges written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-28 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2001, the newly established Learning and Skills Council (the Council) took over a programme of capital works in the further education sector, to renew an estate that was too large, with much of it in poor condition and no longer fit for modern educational purposes. By March 2008, a total of £4.2 billion of projects had been approved 'in detail', including grant support from the Council of £1.7 billion, and about half of the estate had been renewed. Since April 2008, there has been a very serious failure in the management of the programme. It approved 'in principle' 79 colleges' projects, which required nearly £2.7 billion of Council funding more than it could afford. Before the current problems arose, the programme had achieved some successes, enabling the estate to be reduced in size, and the buildings are generally of good quality and are contributing to increased learner participation. The economic downturn could affect colleges' ability to fund projects by restricting their access to loan finance or their ability to sell surplus assets. The indebtedness of the sector is rising. The Council needs to monitor closely the financial health of some colleges, particularly those that have borrowings that exceed 40 per cent of their annual income. In 2010, the Council is expected to be dissolved and its functions taken over by the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. There needs to be clarity about responsibilities for the capital programme, and additional administrative burdens on colleges must be avoided.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215532701 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (327 download)
Book Synopsis DEFRA by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book DEFRA written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of land containing habitats and wildlife which are of national or international importance. There are over 4,000 SSSI sites in England, protected through restrictions on activities and development which would adversely affect the sites. In 2000, the Department agreed a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to bring 95 per cent of SSSI land area into a 'favourable' or 'recovering' condition by December 2010. The reported condition of sites has increased from 52 per cent of land area in target condition in December 2002 to 86 per cent in February 2009. The programme of SSSI condition assessments is not up-to-date and Natural England has put in place a programme of work to address the backlog of assessments by 2010, and has introduced quality assurance systems and guidelines to improve the consistency of its record keeping. Public expenditure on SSSIs has more than doubled over the past eight years, from £35.6 million a year in 2000-01 to £85.4 million in 2008-09. Financial incentives to encourage private landowners to conserve sites account for some 58 per cent of public expenditure. There is scope to improve the processes for identifying new sites and declassifying existing ones which are no longer of special interest.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530639 Total Pages :44 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (36 download)
Book Synopsis Management of tax debt by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Management of tax debt written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) collected around £450 billion in tax and National Insurance contributions from 35 million taxpayers. At 31 March 2008 the Department was owed £17.3 billion in outstanding tax, interest and penalties, £4.5 billion of which was more than a year old. Debts arise when people or businesses forget to pay, do not understand the need to pay or deliberately try to avoid or delay payment. Most tax payments are made on time, but during 2007-2008 30 per cent of tax payments were made after they were due, the number of tax debts increased by 22 per cent and the level and age of debt increased on some taxes. HMRC needs to change the behaviour of taxpayers who persistently pay late. HMRC could do more to encourage prompt payment and it also lags behind best practice in recovering debt. For example, it does not risk score its debtors. Risk scoring would allow it to tailor the help it gives to those who do not understand their obligations or are in financial crisis, while dealing promptly with debtors who deliberately pay late. HMRC is also unable to automatically link debts owed on different taxes by the same taxpayer. In managing tax debt, HMRC must balance the need to maximise revenue for the Exchequer with that of offering support to individuals and businesses in temporary financial difficulty. Balancing these objectives becomes more difficult in a recession. Since launching the Business Payment Support Service in November 2008, HMRC had - by February 2009 - agreed over 60,000 'time to pay' arrangements with individual businesses, worth £1 billion in deferred tax.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530011 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (3 download)
Book Synopsis Mathematics Performance in Primary Schools by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Mathematics Performance in Primary Schools written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08 the National Strategy to improve performance in primary mathematics cost some £104 million to implement. The Strategy aims to raise performance through extensive teaching and learning resources, supported by professional development programmes for teachers. In 2006-07 some £2.3 billion was spent on teaching mathematics in primary schools, out of a total expenditure of £10 billion on primary teaching and teaching support staff. Yet improvements in the mathematics results of primary school pupils have levelled off since 2000. In 2008, 79 per cent of pupils met the Government's expected standard at Key Stage 2 (age 11). This means that over one in five children are starting secondary school without a secure foundation in mathematics. There are persistent gaps in the mathematics performance of primary school pupils from different backgrounds and with different characteristics. In contrast to other subjects, boys are making more progress than girls. The biggest attainment gap-18 percentage points-is related to deprivation. Performance varies across England and between local authorities, with the percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard at KS2 ranging from 70 to 87 per cent. The Primary National Strategy has contributed to improvements in primary mathematics teaching and learning but weaknesses persist in vital areas such as the use and application of mathematics to real-life situations and the assessment of pupils' progress. The lack of depth in subject knowledge of many primary school teachers, and the lack of take-up of continuing professional development in mathematics, are major concerns which the Department has only recently begun to address through a ten year programme to train 13,000 specialist teachers.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530714 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (37 download)
Book Synopsis Building Schools for the Future by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Building Schools for the Future written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-11 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Children, Schools and Families' Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF) plans to renew every secondary school in the country, by rebuilding half of them, structurally remodelling 35 per cent, refurbishing 15 per cent and providing Information Communication Technology to all. Its aim is to use capital investment in new buildings as a catalyst to improve educational outcomes. The Department estimates that the programme will cost £52-£55 billion over its lifetime. The Department was over-optimistic in its original planning assumptions for BSF: of the 200 schools originally planned to be completed by December 2008, only 42 had been by that date. The Department now expects the programme to take 18 years, with the last school completed in 2023. Local authorities are responsible for the local delivery of BSF. They plan, procure and manage the BSF school buildings. In 2004, the Department established Partnerships for Schools to manage the national delivery of the programme. The Department and Partnerships for Schools encourage local authorities to procure their schools through a Local Education Partnership. These are 10-year partnerships to procure a flow of projects, structured as joint ventures between the local authority, a consortium of private companies that build, finance and maintain schools, and Building Schools for the Future Investments. It is too early to conclude whether BSF will achieve its educational objectives. To date, over-optimism has meant the programme could not live up to expectations. Establishing Partnerships for Schools to manage the programme centrally has helped local authorities to deliver more effectively, but while Local Education Partnerships have potential advantages, their value for money is yet to be proven. And it will be very challenging to deliver all schools by 2023.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530592 Total Pages :36 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (35 download)
Book Synopsis The efficiency of radio production at the BBC by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The efficiency of radio production at the BBC written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-04 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The BBC, in 2007-08, spent £462 million on its 16 radio stations. The BBC has set these 16 stations a combined target of efficiency savings of £69 million over the five year period to March 2013, representing an annual saving of 3 per cent. The BBC proposed unacceptable constraints on the Comptroller and Auditor General's access to information and his discretion to report to his findings to Parliament. The situation arose because the Comptroller and Auditor General does not have statutory unrestricted rights of access to the BBC, which he does with all other publicly funded bodies. The BBC has wide ranges of costs for similar programmes within and between its radio stations. The average cost for an hour of comparable music programmes on Radio 2 is more than 50 per cent higher than on Radio 1. For most breakfast and 'drivetime' slots, the BBC's costs are significantly higher than commercial stations, largely because of payments to presenters. The BBC has not used cost comparisons across its own programmes, or against commercial radio, to identify scope for efficiencies. The BBC uses its principal value for money indicator-cost per listener hour-to justify the cost of presenters on the basis of audience size, but the indicator does not provide assurance that programme costs are the minimum necessary to reach the required quality and intended audience. For most radio programmes, presenters' salaries represent the majority of programming costs, but the BBC is paying more than the market price for its top radio presenters. The BBC has prevented full public scrutiny of the value for money of expenditure on presenters by agreeing confidentiality clauses with some presenters.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530493 Total Pages :56 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (34 download)
Book Synopsis Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Occupied Royal Palaces Estate (the Estate), which includes Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, is held in trust for the nation and used to support the official duties of The Sovereign. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is accountable to Parliament for the upkeep of the Estate, but has delegated day to day responsibility to the Royal Household. The annual grant to maintain and run the Palaces has remained at around £15 million since 2000-01 (a 19 per cent real terms reduction). An increase in running costs over the same period means there has been a 27 per cent fall in maintenance expenditure to £11.1 million in 2007-08. The Department has set the Household an objective which focuses on the condition of the Estate, but none of the key indicators measures performance against it, and the Household does not have a comprehensive analysis of the condition of the Estate. In addition, a £32 million maintenance backlog has built up and important work has been deferred. The Department and the Household have yet to agree criteria for assessing the backlog and develop a plan for managing it. In addition, the Household does not have a strategy for managing its Estate. The Royal Collection Trust (the Trust) manages visitor admission to the Palaces and receives the income generated, which in 2007-08 totalled £28 million. Buckingham Palace is open for 63 days because of the number of official engagements and the costs involved. Other buildings such as the White House and Houses of Parliament manage to open for most of the year, despite similar obligations and security concerns.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215532633 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (326 download)
Book Synopsis Planning for homes by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Planning for homes written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Housing developments require the approval of planning applications by local planning authorities (Authorities) before they can proceed. The Department for Communities and Local Government has implemented a number of measures in recent years to improve the performance of the development management stage of the planning process, in which applications are considered by Authorities, and to boost planning capacity. The measures include the setting of national targets for the speed of Authority decision-making, and the allocation of £68 million a year in Planning Delivery Grant (the Grant) to Authorities as a reward for meeting targets. The Grant, together with the setting of a 13 week target for decisions, has provided Authorities with an incentive to determine applications more quickly. Between 2002-03 and 2007-08, the percentage of major residential planning applications decided within 13 weeks almost doubled to 67 per cent. The Department's measures to improve the application process have met with mixed success. The Department has encouraged Authorities to hold pre-application discussions with developers, but there is a lack of clarity across Authorities about the purpose of these discussions. Some Authorities have not deployed sufficiently senior and experienced staff in the discussions, and Authorities have also taken different approaches to charging. Authorities' monitoring of developers' discharge of the conditions attached to planning permissions has been given a low priority, partly because of the focus on meeting the 13 week decision target. Authorities have spent about 95 per cent of Planning Delivery Grant on their planning functions, although the extent to which it has resulted in extra expenditure on planning is unclear.
