1 Introduction: Departmental and management Accounts
The purposes of Government Accounts
The current purpose of Government Accounts
2 The current format of Government Accounts
The current format of Government Accounts
Simplifying and Streamlining the Accounts
What the public wants from Accounts
Are Annual Reports and Accounts meeting the needs of the public or Parliament?
The success of the Treasury Simplifying and Streamlining reforms
Departmental spend “segmentation”
The Financial Reporting Advisory Board
4 Accounts and Parliamentary accountability
The importance of Parliamentary Scrutiny
The origins of Parliamentary scrutiny of Government Accounts
Current Parliamentary Scrutiny
Estimates and the Spending review
Specific ministerial commitments
The success of Parliamentary Scrutiny
5 Accuracy and credibility of Government Accounts
The Importance of accurate and credible Accounts
Technical standards applied to UK Government Accounts
The benefits of accruals accounting
International Financial Reporting Standards
Benefits of good quality Accounts
The accuracy of Departmental annual Reports and Accounts
The accuracy of financial statements
The accuracy of Annual Reports and political spin
6 Management accounting in Government
The purpose of management information
Management Accounts and information in the public sector: a persistent weakness
The Financial Management Review
Implementation of Single Departmental Plans
Current state of published SDPs
Arguments in favour of publishing SDPs in full
Single Departmental Plans and Annual Reports and Accounts
Conclusions and recommendations
List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament
26 April 2017