3 Format and quality of the Annual
Report
14. The DCLG 2006 Annual Report was published on
17 July, more than two months after the 12 May deadline set by
HM Treasury. Mr Housden told us that the Department had hoped
to publish earlier but was concerned to make sure the report was
accurate and appropriate. He also said machinery of government
changes in May which led to the creation of the Department following
the abolition of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had "imposed
a broader burden on the department".[12]
It is, frankly, difficult to see why the new Department's creation
on 8 May 2006 should have had any impact at all on an Annual Report
intended for publication, at the latest, on 12 May 2006. The work
required should surely have been largely completed by then. And
even the "broader burden" imposed by the changes from
8 May should have arrived too late to affect the Report's preparation.
Mr Housden told us he hoped the 2007 Annual Report would be published
on time.[13] We
are concerned that the Department missed its deadline for Annual
Report publication by more than two months. We are unconvinced
that DCLG's creation on 8 May 2006 should significantly have affected
a document intended for publication only four days later. We note
the Permanent Secretary's intention to publish the 2007 Report
on time and will expect a full explanation if that is not achieved.
15. The Scrutiny Unit, which surveyed departmental
annual reports across Government, judged the DCLG Annual Report
to be of comparatively reasonable length and the language and
presentation of its narrative sections to be reasonably accessible.
Chapter 1 sets out the ministerial and management structure of
the DCLG (although this has since changed as a result of the machinery
of government changes). Chapter 2 sets out the Department's strategic
context. Chapter 3 contains the main narrative description of
the Department's activities. Chapter 4 focuses on the Department's
resources and matters including communications and better regulation.
Chapter 5 sets out the roles of the Department's executive agencies
and public bodies, including the Fire Service College, the Planning
Inspectorate, the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre and Ordnance
Survey. Chapter 6 reports progress on the Department's efficiency
targets. Annex A contains detailed tables covering the Public
Service Agreement (PSA) targets. Annexes B and C contain core
tables covering finance and staffing levels. Annex D outlines
the ODPM's approach to asset management. Annex E contains the
departmental investment strategy. Annex F is new, and particularly
useful, mapping PSA targets to the Department's high-level goals
and strategic priorities. Annex G lists Public Accounts Committee
recommendations relating to the ODPM. Annexes H to J offer general
information.
16. In our Report on the departmental Annual Report
of 2005, we were critical of a lack of clarity and accessibility.
In particular, we recommended that readers of the Department's
report should be able to determine whether resource allocations
properly support departmental objectives and represent value for
money.[14] In response,
ODPM said it would look at ways of more clearly presenting such
links.[15] The effort
made to map PSA targets to high-level goals and strategic priorities
in Annex F is welcome, but does not quite link PSAs to resource
allocation. The annexes to the report contain the necessary information
for those capable of making the necessary connections, but in
the interests of greater accountability, the Department needs
to continue to develop the process of clarification it has begun
with this Annual Report. We
are pleased to note that the Department has taken significant
steps to make its Annual Report clearer and more accessible to
the general reader, including the provision of a useful new annex
allowing comparison between high-level goals and strategic priorities.
We recommend that the Department continue to develop new means
of clarifying the connections between its PSA targets and the
resources allocated to their achievement.
17. Last year, however, we were also critical of
errors in proof-reading, financial tables and charts. The ODPM
response accepted the criticism and said that the Department would
be "acting on the Committee's recommendations".[16]
Yet tables and diagrams used in this year's report are often confusing
and are in some cases rendered inaccurate by typographical and
other errors. For example: printing errors render tables B4 and
B9 inaccurate and a proof-reading query remains in the final text.[17]
In addition, wrong data are sometimes given—for example,
gross value added data for 2003 are given although the 2004 data
were available, an error for which the Department has apologised.[18]
18. Individual errors are, arguably, in themselves
fairly trivial, but the overall impression gained is that inadequate
care went into proofing a final copy for publication, in spite
of the two months taken beyond the deadline to produce it. The
Permanent Secretary, when asked precisely what action the Department
had taken as a result of its promise in response to last year's
criticisms, said that the importance of accuracy had been impressed
on staff and checks put in place. He added, however:
"We clearly have to do more to make sure that
the constituencies within the different policy teams who are providing
these data, are signing them off in a reliable, assured way and
have the opportunity, once the document is set and ready, to
check these things again. I apologise. Our systems are clearly
not foolproof at this stage. We need to do more".[19]
We are disappointed, following our
criticism of the accuracy of the Department's 2005 Annual Report,
by the considerable number of minor errors allowed to appear in
the 2006 document, several of which render statistical information
inaccurate or out of date. We are unclear about what was done
to fulfil the Department's 2005 promise to take action. The appearance
of the final document is, bluntly, sub-standard. We strongly recommend
that the Department take active steps to ensure careful proof-checking,
particularly of financial tables and charts. The failure to make
significant improvements in this regard implies a lack of commitment
on the part of the Department towards the duty of explaining its
activities and achievements to Parliament and the public.
12 Q10 Back
13
Q11 Back
14
ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee,
First Report of Session 2005-06, ODPM Annual Report and Accounts
2005, HC 559, para 9 Back
15
ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee,
Fourth Special Report of Session 2005-06, ODPM Annual Report
and Accounts 2005: Government's Response to the Committee's First
Report of Session 2005-06, HC 1072, p 4 Back
16
HC (2005-06) 1072, p 5 Back
17
Department for Communities and Local Government, DCLG Annual
Report 2006, Cm 6816, July 2006, pp 103, 108 and 20 (hereafter
DCLG Annual Report 2006) Back
18
Ev 32 Back
19
Q12 Back
|
