4 Following up the Committee's previous
recommendations
24. When our predecessors looked at this subject
in 2000 they made 16 recommendations to improve the service offered
to victims of violent crime and to improve the value for money
of administering the scheme. In the Treasury Minute the government
broadly accepted all but one of the recommendations, yet only
five had been met in full. Figure 5 summarises the recommendations
and the extent to which they have been met. The Ministry plans
to appoint an official to act as a central liaison point responsible
for monitoring the Ministry's response to the National Audit Office's
and the Committee's recommendations, and ensuring that those recommendations
that the government has accepted are met in the future.[25]Figure
5: Only five of the Committee's previous recommendations have
been met in full
Source: National Audit Office
25. The Committee made a specific recommendation
in 2000 that the Authority review the distribution of staffing
between its London and Glasgow offices, because the Glasgow office
processed applications more quickly and at a lower administrative
cost than the London office. The Authority finally took the decision
to relocate all its operations to Glasgow when the lease ran out
on its London office in 2007, seven years after the recommendation
was made. The Authority could have saved at least an additional
£4 million by relocating in 2002. The Authority has had to
take out a further 6 month lease on a new office space at a cost
of some £12,000 per month, to accommodate a few remaining
staff, who have not yet been redeployed.[26]
26. When the government accepts the recommendations
of the Committee, the Treasury issues a Treasury Minute in which
it makes a commitment to the Committee and, via the Committee,
to the House of Commons, to meet those recommendations. The Treasury
looked to Accounting Officers and other witnesses at hearings
to follow up the recommendations, as it was they who gave the
undertaking to meet those recommendations. The Treasury now planned
to consider what they could do to monitor actions in response
to recommendations.[27]
25 Qq 5-7, 66-67, 69, 95-96; C&AG's Report, Appendix
1 Back
26
Qq 5, 120-121; C&AG's Report, paras 4.19-4.21 Back
27
Q 163 Back
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