As the Government pushes on with plans to rewire the British
state to deliver for working people through its the Government's
Plan for Change, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has today
announced wide ranging reforms to modernise and reform the
architecture of public spending across government.
In a speech at the Institute for Government today (Thursday 20
March), laid out his plans to
transform and upgrade the government's central finance
system, to improve the timeliness and accuracy of data shared
between departments and HM Treasury to boost
decision-making at the heart of government.
Currently, departments track their own spending and performance,
and share data with the Treasury via manual uploads in online
spreadsheets and physical letters. This means the Treasury does
not have real time access to departments the finance and
performance management data and cannot see in real time
departmental spending and its impact.
To address these inefficiencies, the Chief Secretary has formed
plans to transform government's approach to understanding,
tracking, and evaluating spending across departments.
Under these new plans, Ministers will have access to live and
real-time performance data at both a departmental and programme
level.
This means Ministers will be able to see in real
time what programmes are over or under spending, which
projects are delivering and not, and how departments are
performing against their budgets and objectives.
All of this will improve the timeliness and accuracy of data
insight to boost financial and strategic decision-making at the
heart of government.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury said:
“The Prime Minister been clear that the government will rewire
the state, so that it better delivers on the people's priorities.
"I am convinced that through investment and reform, we can
deliver a more productive and agile state that delivers better
outcomes for people and reduces the cost of running public
services.
"That's why as part of my wider reforms to public spending, HM
Treasury will be using technology to analyse finance and
performance data in real time and free up departments to focus on
delivery instead of Treasury compliance reporting.”
This drive for modernisation and reforming the state comes after
the Prime Minister last week announced a radical transformation
of the state, to streamline efficiencies and cut wasteful
spending, so that it works for working people and delivers his
Plan for Change. It also comes a week before the Chancellor
delivers the Spring Statement.
