Department for Work and Pensions: Information

(asked on 7th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mechanisms are in place to audit information provided to her Department by (a) regulatory bodies and (b) non-departmental public bodies.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 16th July 2021

The Department oversees the governance, performance, strategy and financial arrangements of Arm’s-Length Bodies (ALBs) via several mechanisms, which are applicable to both regulatory bodies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).

The relationship between an ALB and the Department is established through a framework document, in line with the Managing Public Money guidance - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-public-money: “3.8.2 The framework document (or equivalent) agreed between an ALB and its sponsor always provides for the sponsor department to exercise meaningful oversight of the ALB’s strategy and performance, pay arrangements and/or major financial transactions, e.g. by monthly returns, standard delegations and exception reporting. The sponsor department’s accounts consolidate those of its ALBs so its accounting officer must be satisfied that the consolidated accounts are accurate and not misleading”.

A NDPB is required to submit to their sponsoring department, an annual report and audited accounts prepared in accordance with the relevant statutes and guidelines. The annual report and accounts provide the sponsoring department with information about the financial and non-financial performance of the NDPB. In addition, they will state if the NDPB has met key performance indicators as set out in their business and corporate plans. The report and accounts are laid in Parliament and, where commercially possible, made available on the NDPB’s website.

In addition to these processes, the Department runs an Annual Assurance Assessment, holds Quarterly Accountability Reviews with the bodies and attends the bodies’ Audit and Risk Committees.

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