Jonny Mood - National Audit Office

Fascinating Public Accounts Committee session today on local bus services in England, drawing on our recent @nao.org.uk report

Discussion covered important areas such as improving performance for passengers, accessibility, funding, and skills in the sector

Video 👇
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

A new @nao.org.uk report shows local bus services have not recovered to pre-Covid levels. Read our full response tinyurl.com/yryby6uf

Good work by @jonnymood.bsky.social & the NAO

A clear strategy, long term & simplified revenue funding, capital investment to get buses out of traffic and make them a better option than driving + support for local authorities all crucial in providing more people access to decent bus services.

Most failures aren’t failures. Unlearned lessons are. We tend to think the National Audit Office will criticise projects that don’t succeed as a waste of public money.

As director of the National Audit Office, @jonnymood.bsky.social is able to bust so many myths about what value for money means. Is a failure automatically poor value? NO!

I write about this on Freewheeling Bitesize. If you're inspired, listen!

“It's fine when you're swinging big to have a few misses in a controlled environment”.

Jonny Mood appeared on the Freewheeling podcast to discuss why the public sector shouldn't be afraid to fail - as long as it's willing to learn from failures.

Listen here ⤵️

Jonny Mood on Value for Money — Freewheeling “It's fine when you're swinging big to have a few misses in a controlled environment” - 𝗝𝗼𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 making it very clear that it’s fine for public sector organisa...

I had great time talking to the ever excellent @freewheeling.info podcast about @nao.org.uk work on innovation, transport and our value for money work more generally

You can take a listen to what we talked about in the link below

www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...

UK government launches new wave of private financing for public services Ministers insist infrastructure projects will avoid pitfalls of earlier PFI deals

Private finance for public service is back. How do we learn the lessons of past issues here? We produced an @nao.org.uk report drawing together lessons from 140 NAO reports
on.ft.com/446gixl

Great report out today from @nao.org.uk- absolutely jam packed with insights from operational delivery across government, with some key lessons for departments and ALBs

as well as the report, there is a nice feature in @civilserviceworld.bsky.social as well
www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...

Take a whole system approach Deal with complexity and uncertainty by understanding how different parts of the system connect and achieve outcomes for service users .

Understand and deal with demand Design and run services in a way that provides people with what they want, when they want it, and get it right the first time.

Use information to improve Work to understand how services are performing, and use that information to decide what to change, why, and how.

Have a systemic approach to innovation and improvement Know where problems happen and if there are opportunities to improve.

We've drawn on a range of case studies from the DVLA, HMRC, Home Office and more, to understand how departments are innovating, adapting, and improving the way public services are delivered.

Read our latest report on smarter operational delivery here: www.nao.org.uk/insights/sma...

Productivity has been too low for too long

Improving it in the public sector will require applying new technologies, system reform, investing in upskilling people and operational delivery, and better maintaining assets

Lots in the @nao.org.uk back catalogue covering this and more to come in future

£5.2 billion in tax collected in 2023-24 as a result of HMRC's compliance work with wealthy individuals

Wealthy individuals have complex tax affairs, which makes it more difficult for HMRC to identify the tax they owe.

HMRC has secured more of the tax due from wealthy people, however further gains are possible.

Read our report for more: www.nao.org.uk/reports/coll...

@ukri.org plays a critical role, supporting cutting-edge work that helps support progress in many policy areas

But what does its approach to teach us about how to promote innovation across government?

My @nao.org.uk colleague discusses key insights from our work in @wonkhe.bsky.social 👇

UK Research and Innovation: providing support through grants - NAO report UKRI should strengthen its approach to taking bolder decisions and address data challenges to maximise value for money for the taxpayer.

Government sees research and innovation as vital to achieving its long-term policy goals of growing the economy and achieving net zero

@nao.org.uk has looked at how @ukri.org - which spends £9bn a year - can use well-managed risk taking to maximise vfm

Report 👉 www.nao.org.uk/reports/uk-r...

Our latest @nao.org.uk report looks at the water sector

Regulators have failed to deliver a trusted, resilient water sector

Gov needs to act urgently to address industry performance and resilience to ensure the sector can meet targets and achieve vfm over the long term for bill payers

It was a real pleasure to talk about @nao.org.uk work on active travel at WEET forum last week

And to hear about the progress made by @ategov.bsky.social over last 2 years.

I highlighted some of our findings on strategy, funding, realising the benefits

Few words on LinkedIn: tinyurl.com/rtsxj7nx

Lessons learned: Private finance for infrastructure - NAO report The aim of this National Audit Office report is to support public bodies as they consider how to finance new public infrastructure.

Interesting report out today from @nao.org.uk, looking over 140 previous publications for lessons learned on using private finance for infrastructure (hot topic in a world of constrained public finances).

Lots chimes with our @futuregovforum.bsky.social work.

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www.nao.org.uk/reports/less...

What should government decision-makers consider as they develop plans for new infrastructure investment?

Our latest @nao.org.uk draws out key considerations for decision makers - important reading for anyone involved in delivering or financing infrastructure projects

www.nao.org.uk/reports/less...

Pleasure to join @jonnymood.bsky.social at this event.

NAO's report on active travel in England from 2023 is a must read: www.nao.org.uk/reports/acti...

Jonny's presentation (and that report) included this useful illustration of active travel's benefit & relevance across government depts

Active Travel 25 Next steps for active travel in England

Looking forward to speaking at this event on active travel

I'll talk about @nao.org.uk work on active travel and chair a discussion with a fab range of speakers including from @ategov.bsky.social @walk21.bsky.social @livingstreets.bsky.social

www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/conference/A...

Mega-projects can bring enormous benefits, but to get to that value government needs to successfully steer what are often costly, innovative, risky, complex and strategically important projects

How can government do better than its track record?

Very timely @nao.org.uk lessons learned report 👇

This seems spot on. The @nao.org.uk found cyber threat is severe and advancing quickly. There are too few specialists which is holding back gov's ability to address significant gaps in cyber resilience

Our recommendations aim to help gov catch-up to this acute threat
www.nao.org.uk/reports/gove...

Public charge points for electric vehicles | Jonny Mood The Public Accounts Committee reports today on public chargepoints for electric vehicles - some really interesting recommendations in terms of what next in…

The Public Accounts Committee reports today on public chargepoints for electric vehicles

Some really interesting recommendations for what next in the rollout, accessibility and addressing the difference in costs between public and private charge points

Short post in link👇

tinyurl.com/mr4d25m9

Jonny Mood on LinkedIn: Where now for HS2?: PAC urges Govt to set out what benefit can be salvaged… Where now for HS2? The Public Accounts Committee published a hard-hitting report last week on the HS2 programme – concluding it is “a casebook example of how…

Where now for HS2?
Public Accounts Committee recently published a hard-hitting report on HS2
Beyond the headlines of 'this is how not to run a project' there are areas worth highlighting that PAC push on relating to the programme reset, costs, environmental measures and more
👇
tinyurl.com/2p9ace4s

Government has committed to phasing out new petrol and diesel car sales. With that comes the need for a widespread, easy to use and reliable network of EV public chargepoints. How is government doing?

For a quick summary, see the piece I've written on our @nao.org.uk report in Public Sector Focus

The four ways Labour can stop benefit fraud and save billions National Audit Office’s anti-fraud boss outlines how losses can be halted after benefit overpayments hit £10.2bn last year

The NAO's director for fraud & propriety, Joshua Reddaway, spoke to @theipaper.com to discuss the increase in fraud and error in recent years and how the government might address the issue.

Read his interview here 👇
inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Very good @financialtimes.com @georginaq.bsky.social read on AI & fixing potholes

My @nao.org.uk report on local roads heard from stakeholders about the potential for AI and new tech; we pointed to this as an area where more guidance could help local authorities innovate and deliver cost savings

The administrative cost of the tax system - NAO report An increasingly complex tax system is burdening government and business with billions in admin costs.

An increasingly complex tax system is burdening government and business with billions in admin costs

New @nao.org.uk report on the administrative cost of tax system: cost to HMRC of collecting tax grew by 15% (£563mn) over last 5 years

Report 👇 explains reasons why
www.nao.org.uk/reports/the-...

Estimating and reporting fraud and error in annual reports and accounts - NAO insight Our good practice guide aims to help public bodies improve quality of reporting of fraud and error estimates in annual reports and accounts.

Fraud and error has a huge cost to taxpayers: £55bn-£81bn in 2023-24

Only a fraction of this is detected and known about - you need to know what the problem is to tackle it

Our latest @nao.org.uk guide brings together good practice on estimating and reporting fraud
👇
www.nao.org.uk/insights/est...

Effective innovation is key to unlocking much needed gains in public sector productivity and innovation

The head of @nao.org.uk in his annual address in Parliament, has focused on the need to tackle longstanding issues around productivity and resilience

Full speech 👇
www.nao.org.uk/insights/inn...