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Public Expenditure System (PES)

Secretariat 0207 270 6503 PES (2013) 09 20 December 2013

GUIDANCE ON THE PREPARATION OF 2013-14 ANNUAL REPORTS AND ACCOUNTS

Summary This PES paper sets out guidance for all departments on the content of their 2013-14 Annual Report and Accounts.

Action or Information

This PES paper provides guidance on the content requirements of the Annual Report component of the Annual Report and Accounts; departments should refer to the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) and related guidance for details on the content requirements for the Annual Accounts component, and also take account of the requirements contained in Managing Public Money (MPM).

Deadline The administrative deadline for laying the 2013-14 Annual Reports and Accounts (ARAs) is the end of June 2014, although those departments which successfully achieved end-June publication of their 2012-13 ARAs are encouraged to aim to move progressively towards mid-June presentation (where this does not involve disproportionate cost or use of resources), to meet the Government’s commitments to Parliament. Departments should agree with the Treasury a timetable for achieving this deadline.

Departments should also take into account deadlines for submission of data on to OSCAR. The Treasury will need accurate data for use in the preparation of certain core tables (see section 11 below).

Departments covered by this PES paper

All departments must lay and publish a combined Annual Report and Accounts document for the group covering the year to 31 March 2014.

Expiry of paper On issue of an updated PES paper explicitly superseding this paper.

Superseded/ Related papers

This paper supersedes PES (2012) 17.

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OVERVIEW

1. Summary

1.1. This PES paper sets out guidance for all departments on the content of their 2013-14 Annual Report and Accounts.

1.2. HM Treasury is currently undertaking a project that aims to simplify and streamline the Annual Report and Accounts produced by central government reporting entities. It is envisaged that over time a number of the mandatory reporting requirements required by this document will be removed. This will enable reporting entities to concentrate on telling their own story to the users of the Annual Report and Accounts. While HM Treasury works with relevant stakeholders to ascertain which reporting requirements can be removed these mandatory reporting requirements will remain. Departments should, however, note that they have flexibility in how these mandatory reporting requirements are met and are encouraged to ensure that as far as possible the Annual Report and Accounts is focussed on the needs of users.

1.3. Departments are encouraged in 2013-14 to take a “red-pen” approach to remove unnecessary and immaterial information. This approach will require senior level ownership of the Annual Report and Accounts and early engagement with the National Audit Office will be crucial. Where a Department deems the use of Annexes and links to standing information on websites appropriate to meet some disclosure requirements they should discuss this approach with Philip Trotter at HM Treasury using the contact details provided in section 3.

1.4. HM Treasury has this year also introduced a requirement for those Departments that are part of the Business Plan performance regime to produce mid-year reports to Parliament. Departments should consider how they can use the Annual Report and Accounts to update Parliament on the key information that they have published in those documents.

1.5. Key points:

- All departments must lay and publish a combined Annual Report and Accounts document for the group covering the year to 31 March 2014.

- This PES paper provides guidance on the content requirements of the Annual Report component of the Annual Report and Accounts; departments should refer to the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) and related guidance for details on the content requirements for the Annual Accounts component, and also take account of the requirements contained in Managing Public Money (MPM).

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- The Annual Report and Accounts should be an integrated document and satisfy the disclosure requirements of both this guidance and the FReM. Duplication should therefore be avoided wherever possible: for example if information is included in the Annual Accounts, in accordance with the FReM, the presumption is that it does not also need to be included in other sections of the document.

- The Annual Report and Accounts should present a clear picture of the departmental group’s aims, activities, functions, and performance, linking performance and services delivered over the past year with expenditure.

- The Annual Report and Accounts must include the core contents set out in this PES paper. However, departments have flexibility to include additional content and, as noted, may organise their reports a way that makes most sense in terms of their objectives, organisation, business processes, and Select Committees’ needs.

- The administrative deadline for laying the 2013-14 Annual Reports and Accounts (ARAs) is the end of June 2014, although those departments which successfully achieved end-June publication of their 2012-13 ARAs are encouraged to aim to move progressively towards mid-June presentation (where this does not involve disproportionate cost or use of resources), to meet the Government’s commitments to Parliament. Departments should agree with the Treasury a timetable for achieving this deadline.

- Departments should also take into account deadlines for submission of data on to OSCAR. The Treasury will need accurate data for use in the preparation of certain core tables (see section 11 below).

- The Annual Report and Accounts will be prepared on a consolidated basis in line with the CLOS reforms, and should include relevant information on the aims, activities, functions and performance of the departmental group as a whole. Therefore where relevant, the Annual Report and Accounts should include either:

information about those bodies within their departmental group as part of the core contents; or

reference to this information, if this is included in another publication

Departments should take account of materiality when determining whether or not information about bodies within the departmental group is relevant, and therefore whether or not it should be included in the Annual Report and Accounts (e.g. whether all ALB pension disclosures should be included, or,

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where it is considered appropriate, only to include a reference to the underlying ALB accounts where the information may be accessed). Department’s should note that information can be material by context and not only by monetary value. If in doubt they should discuss this with HM Treasury and the National Audit Office.

1.6. When compared with last year’s Annual Report and Accounts PES guidance, the following changes now apply:

- A reduction in mandatory requirements related to performance reporting to enable Departments to report against their Business Plan in the Annual Report and Accounts in a manner that they consider would best contribute to the understanding of performance and value for money in their areas of responsibility.

- Integration of performance evaluation into the Lead Non-Executive’s Report to reflect existing practice by most entities (section 12).

- Some small changes to Better Regulation reporting to reflect changes to policies.

- Removal of the requirement to make reference to the Cabinet Office Public Bodies directory.

- Integration of the previously separate standing guidance on laying Annual Report and Accounts with the laying and publishing information in this document (sections 26 to 37)

2. Departments covered by this PES paper

2.1. All UK Government departments should prepare an Annual Report and Accounts document for laying before Parliament. This guidance therefore applies to all UK Government departments. If, exceptionally, a department does not consider this guidance to apply, it should contact HM Treasury and provide a clear explanation of this consideration.

2.2. Agencies and ALBs should prepare Annual Reports and Accounts in accordance with their governing documents, relevant legislation and the directions given by sponsor departments. Sponsor departments may choose to direct Agencies and ALBs to follow this guidance, as long as this does not supersede or affect compliance with governing documents or relevant legislation.

2.3. While this guidance applies to all departments, some of the more detailed requirements apply only to those UK Government departments that have published a Business Plan as part of the Transparency Framework.

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2.4. Small and non-ministerial departments (i.e. those without Business Plans, but which are part of the Transparency Framework) should include details of the following in their Annual Report and Accounts:

- Progress against any relevant actions in the Coalition’s Programme for Government; and

- Other relevant information (including both quantitative data and qualitative information) that demonstrates the outcomes the department has achieved with the money it has spent.

2.5. Departments should agree their reporting arrangements with their Select Committee, Treasury Spending Team, and (if applicable) parent department.

2.6. Aside from these core requirements, small and non-ministerial departments have discretion over the presentation of their Annual Report and Accounts.

2.7. This guidance does not apply to the accounts of Public Sector Pension Schemes

3. Contacts

3.1. General questions about this guidance should be addressed to:

Philip Trotter, Tel: 020 7270 4538.

email: philip.trotter@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

3.2. Questions on performance reporting should be addressed to:

- Simon Madden, Tel 020 7271 3554.

email: simon.madden@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

3.3. General questions about common core tables should be addressed to:

- Steven Melbourne, Tel: 020 7270 1154.

email: steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

3.4. For questions relating to a specific core table see the Core Tables

section 11 below for contact information.

4. Timetable

4.1. Departments should aim to lay their Annual Reports and Accounts before Parliament by the end of June, in accordance with the administrative deadline established as part of the CLOS reforms. Those departments which successfully achieved end-June publication of their 2012-13 ARAs are encouraged to aim to move progressively towards mid-June presentation (where this does not involve disproportionate cost or use of resources), to meet the Government’s commitments to Parliament.

mailto:philip.trotter@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:simon.madden@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

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4.2. At the latest, departments should aim to lay their Annual Reports and Accounts before Parliament prior to the summer recess. Current information is that the House of Commons will rise 22 July 2014. This date is subject to the progress of business and it is always possible that the House might rise earlier.

4.3. In accordance with Ross Campbell’s letter to Finance Directors in December 2013 (MS FD (13)20), departments are required to notify the Treasury of their laying timetable. Departments are reminded to consider the requirements of this PES Paper in establishing their timetables.

4.4. In meeting this timetable, departments should be aware of the deadlines for submission of data on to OSCAR, which is available at the following link:

http://www.coins.gsi.gov.uk/coins/timetable.html

As certain core tables require accurate OSCAR data for completion, departments should take account of this timetable to ensure that they can gather the necessary data to complete core tables.

4.5. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the requirements of this PES Paper are final, certain requirements may be affected by developments in policy.

4.6. If any element of the guidance becomes obsolete or superseded, the Treasury will issue updated guidance setting out the changes to the PES guidance, and the reasons for these changes. The Treasury resolves not to issue any supplementary guidance after 31 March 2014.

5. Background

5.1. The Annual Report component of the Annual Report and Accounts is an important part of the accountability process, and should broadly aim to address the following issues:

- Who we are;

- How we are organised (including risk and governance arrangements);

- What we are aiming to achieve;

- What we spend our money on;

- How we have performed; and

- What are our plans for the future.

5.2. The Annual Report and Accounts should also include a commentary on the contribution departments are making to the reform agenda and key facts and data to demonstrate what has been achieved for the money they have spent. It should be a straightforward and

http://www.coins.gsi.gov.uk/coins/timetable.html

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accessible document, focusing on factual information, rather than a lengthy narrative.

6. Audit arrangements

6.1. The Annual Accounts component of the Annual Report and Accounts document will be subject to audit. Although the content of the Annual Report component will not be subject to audit scrutiny itself, the auditors will check the information presented with the annual report for consistency with the information obtained as part of the audit.

6.2. Departments are encouraged to discuss plans and expectations for the Annual Report with their auditors. Departments should consider how to ensure that information presented in the Annual Report is consistent with the Annual Accounts.

CONTENTS

7. Core Contents

7.1. The following sections (sections 8 to 25) set out the core contents that must be included in the main departments’ Annual Reports. This is the minimum level of reporting required, and departments should add to it as they see fit to in order to ensure effective reporting and full accountability. It is important that the Annual Report and Accounts demonstrates what has been achieved for the resources used by departments, and allows Parliament to hold them to account for this.

7.2. The information in the Annual Report and Accounts should be set out in a way that provides appropriate accountability and is easily understood by its audience. The department should endeavour to provide relevant information in a straight forward form.

8. General

8.1. The Annual Report and Accounts should set out what the department has achieved in 2013-14, including contributions to the Transparency Agenda, and those achievements which contribute to implementing the Coalition Agreement and their Structural Reform Plans (SRP).

8.2. Details of the reform plans for the remaining years of the Spending Review periods should also be included.

9. Accounting

9.1. The FReM requires certain matters to be addressed in the 'Annual Report' and 'Management Commentary' as part of the Annual Accounts within the Annual Report and Accounts. (Chapter 5 of the FReM). The FReM requirements still apply. This PES Paper provides

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guidance to departments on how to comply with certain requirements.

9.2. Where the FReM requirements are the same as, or similar to, the guidance in this PES paper, departments are not required to prepare duplicate disclosures. Departments have the flexibility to present the information required by both this PES paper and the FReM in the most appropriate format. This means that, where applicable, presentation of one set of disclosures should satisfy the requirements of both the PES paper and the FReM. Where information should be presented in the management commentary, but is presented elsewhere in the Annual Report, there should be appropriate cross-referencing.

9.3. Compliance with the guidance on Performance Reporting in section 10 of this paper will be sufficient to satisfy the requirement in the FReM to report performance against agreed targets.

10. Performance reporting

10.1. This section applies to departments that have published a Business Plan as part of the Transparency Framework. Small and non-ministerial departments should agree an approach to reporting their performance with their Treasury Spending Team and Select Committee.

10.2. The Transparency Framework is a key part of the Government’s efficiency and reform agenda. Openness and accountability will help the public to hold the Government to account and deliver better value for money. This is being made possible through greater access to public data through a variety of channels.

10.3. Business Plans set out the department’s priorities, structural reform plans, expenditure, and its contribution to transparency. As part of that, the Business Plan sets out the department’s input and impact indicators. It is against the Business Plan priorities, structural reform plans and indicators that a department will report its performance.

10.4. Departments must report against their Business Plan in the Annual Report and Accounts in a manner that they consider would best contribute to the understanding of performance and value for money in their areas of responsibility. This may include both quantitative and qualitative information, and should cover departments’ major areas of spend, and how these relate to the operating segments.

10.5. It is important to note that departments’ outturn data for 2013-14 against each of the indicators in their Business Plan and comparative data for 2012-13 will need to be included in their Annual Reports and Accounts. Data for earlier years may also be included if appropriate. For financial indicators, the outturn data should be extracted from those

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sources and accounting systems that are used to produce the Annual Accounts and Core Tables.

10.6. The Government uses the Quarterly Data Summary as its main tool for gathering operational management information. In addition to reporting against their Business Plan Departments should publish their overall headline spend data from the Quarterly Data Summary for the year. Departments need only report their headline spend against that part of their Department that was in scope for the Quarterly Data Summary, rather than on the entire accounts boundary.

10.7. The performance report will include narrative to support understanding of data included by Departments. In line with the overall approach set out at section 5.2 above, that narrative should be concise and focussed on enhancing the accessibility of the data. It should provide:

- a brief summary of the overall performance of the Department in terms of meeting its Business Plan priorities and responsibilities, based upon its input and impact indicators;

- an overview of actions to deliver on cross-government priorities;

- an overview of achievement against major SRP actions. Where some SRP actions were overdue at the end of the financial year, the reasons and expected effects should be provided;

- the technical definition of key data sets, where that may not be clear to readers; and

- contextual information, including longer time series and comparators, where that would improve understanding

10.8 Questions on performance reporting should be addressed in the first instance to Simon Madden (see section 3.2 for details).

11. Common Core Tables

11.1 The common core tables were rationalised and simplified in 2010-11 as a result of the Clear Line of Sight (CLOS) reforms. The contents, data sources and relevant contacts for each table are summarised below.

11.2 The reporting requirements for the common core are unchanged from last year. Tables 1, 3 and 4 cover the period 2009-10 to 2015-16. Table 2 covers 2013-14.

11.3 Tables 1, 2 and 4 can be run directly from OSCAR. Departments can make manual adjustments where necessary, but should discuss the changes with contacts in HM Treasury.

11.4 Tables 6, 7 and 8 will not apply to all departments – only to those who have submitted data for the Country and Regional Analysis published

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by HM Treasury. The data is to be obtained from the Treasury contact outlined below.

11.5 In addition to presenting core tables data in the Annual Report and Accounts, departments should also publish a separate, accessible document (e.g. an excel spreadsheet or csv file) containing core tables data alongside their Annual Report and Accounts. This is important to ensure proper analysis of the information by parliamentary select committees, the parliamentary scrutiny unit and the media. Failure to present data in the right format results in a lack of transparency and may also attract media criticism.

11.6 Departments should also ensure that they provide comprehensive explanations of variances or trends in reported data to enable users to understand fully the tables presented.

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Core Table Details Source Contact

Table 1 Public spending Summary based on net budgetary totals from

Part II Subhead detail sections. Seven columns:

five prior years’ outturns (including 2013-14 -

the year just ended), and (Spending Review)

plans for the following two years. Scope of table

will be 2009-10 to 2015-16

OSCAR database Steven Melbourne 0207 270 1154 steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

Table 2 Public spending control To supplement Table 1, year just ended outturn

figures (from Table 1) against the budgetary

control limits, showing original Estimate

Supplementary Estimate and final Estimate

figures as comparators.

OSCAR database Steven Melbourne 0207 270 1154 steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

Table 3 Capital employed Five prior years’ outturns (including year just

ended) and (Spending Review) plan for

following two years.

Departments Philip Trotter 020 7270 4538 philip.trotter@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

Table 4 Administration budgets Summary based on Part II Subhead detail. Five

prior years’ outturns (including year just ended),

Spending Review plans for following two years.

Scope of table will be 2009-10 to 2015-16

OSCAR database Steven Melbourne 0207 270 1154 steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

Table 5 Staff in post Details – At least three years’ outturn data (including year just ended). To also include numbers of non-payroll staff (consultants, and contingent labour i.e. interim managers, specialist contractors and agency staff).

Departments Peter Fagence, Cabinet Office, 0207 271 6348, peter.fagence@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

mailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:philip.trotter@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:philip.trotter@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:peter.fagence@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.ukmailto:peter.fagence@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

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Table 6 Total spending by country and region (over spread of years)

Four years’ outturns ( 2009-10 to 2012-13), HM Treasury, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses branch

Mohammad Huq 0207 270 6170 mohammad.huq@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

Table 7 Total spending per head by country and region (over spread of years)

Four years prior years’ outturns (2009-10 to

2012-13)

HM Treasury, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses branch

Mohammad Huq 0207 270 6170 mohammad.huq@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

Table 8 Spending by function or programme, by country and region (for latest outturn year, 2012-13)

Latest outturn year 2012-13 HM Treasury, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses branch

Mohammad Huq 0207 270 6170 mohammad.huq@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

mailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukmailto:steven.melbourne@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

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11.7 Departments should aim to explicitly link the presentation of spending information in the common core tables to the service and performance information in their Annual Report and Accounts, including the priorities in their Business Plan (where there is one), making clear how these elements are linked. Any significant changes to departments’ activity headings or core table presentation should be agreed with the Treasury and with their Select Committee. In addition departments should aim to ensure consistency between the data presented in the core tables and the top five spending areas within DEL and AME as presented in their Quarterly Data Summary.

11.8 To avoid confusion, departments should align the rows of their administration budgets table with those of their main budgeting tables where practicable.

11.9 Departments should ensure that staff numbers in Table 5 align with those disclosed elsewhere in the Annual Report and Accounts, particularly those disclosed in the Annual Accounts. Departments should also look to ensure that staffing numbers align with those already in the public domain e.g. through their Quarterly Data Summary, monthly workforce returns or ONS National Statistics. Where there are differences between the numbers quoted in Table 5 and those published elsewhere, departments should provide an explanation.

11.10 Departments should provide staffing numbers for the main department and its agencies. As well as providing staffing levels for their payroll staff, departments should provide as a separate line of information, the number of non-payroll staff (consultants and contingent labour i.e. interim managers, specialist contractors and agency staff). Where necessary, departments should provide a supporting narrative to explain the figures provided, to note changes over time and to explain any inconsistencies or limitations in coverage and scope. In addition, departments should also separately publish details on staff numbers in their executive non-departmental public bodies and other bodies as appropriate.

11.11 Departments should provide supporting narrative to the core tables explaining what the numbers represent, what they show, and any variances and movements. The narrative should be clearly linked to the tables, either by locating within or near the tables, or by signposting from the tables to the location of the text elsewhere in the body of the report.

11.12 Departments should also provide narrative to provide additional context for reconciling core tables with data included in the annual accounts. The core tables and the Annual Accounts have both been prepared on a CLOS basis since 2011-12. The expectation is that there should be consistency between these two sources of data.

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11.13 Supplementary tables outside the suite of common core tables that present additional useful information are welcomed. Departments are invited, if they so wish, to review with their Treasury spending team and their Select Committee any existing non-common core tables and discuss what best to include.

11.14 Production of Table 3 is each department’s own responsibility, subject to the notes and table structure below:

2009-10 outturn

2010-11 outturn

2011-12 outturn

2012-13 outturn

2013-14 outturn

2014-15 plans

2015-16 plans

Assets and Liabilities on the Statement of Financial Position at end of year:

Assets

Non-Current assets Intangible Tangible of which: Land and buildings Plant and machinery Etc

Investments Current assets

Liabilities

Payables (1 year) Provisions Capital employed within core department and agencies

ALB net assets Total capital employed in departmental group

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Notes to producing table 3:

11.15 The categories adopted for the sub-analysis of tangible non-current assets should align with those that are material for the Department. Departments should analyse their tangible non-current assets in accordance with these categories, detailing any categories held beyond the minimum FReM categories. Where tangible non-current assets are reported in an “other” category material sub categories should be separately disclosed.

11.16 Outturn numbers for 2009-10 to 2012-13 and outturn for 2013-14 for the core department must reconcile to the figures included in the audited accounts.

11.17 Projected year numbers, should be drawn from departments’ forecast balance sheets for the duration of the Spending Review periods.

NON EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS’ CONTENT

12 Lead Non-Executive’s Report

12.1 Every department with an enhanced departmental board should include a section in the Annual Report which is written by the departmental lead non-executive. The content of this section is at the discretion of the lead non-executive, in consultation with the other non-executives and other board members. As a guide, it should include:

- reflections on departmental progress and performance in relation to the five cross-cutting priorities of Strategic Clarity, Commercial Sense, Talented People, Results Focus and Management Information;

- an outline of the impact the board has had in key areas;

- any changes to non-executive personnel;

- a description of the names and functions of committees of the board; and

- a statement on how the annual evaluation of board effectiveness was conducted and what recommendations will be taken forward. Where performance evaluation has been externally facilitated, the statement must include whether the facilitator has any other connection with the department.

13 Compliance with the Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments: Code of Good Practice (“The Code”)

13.1 The enhanced departmental boards protocol is included within the Code and sets out government policy that must be followed by ministerial departments. The code operates on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, whereby any deviation from the code’s requirements must be explained as part of the governance statement (the governance statement is required by the FReM; it appraises and evaluates the governance, risk and control

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arrangements deployed). Disclosures must be made for each element of the code with which the department is not fully complying:

- Details of the principle or requirement that has not been fully met;

- A clear explanation of why compliance was not appropriate in this case; and

- How the objectives of this element of the Code are being delivered by other means.

13.2 Further guidance on preparing the governance statement can be found in annex 3.1 of Managing Public Money.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS 14 Reporting on Better Regulation

14.1 Departments should describe how they have applied the Government’s Principles of Regulation (both Domestic and EU)1. This should be supported by examples of how they are delivering on the Government’s commitment to produce less regulation, better regulation and regulations as a last resort, as well as any action taken on mitigating the impact of new regulations on small businesses and micros.

14.2 Departments should also offer information about their progress, relating to both domestic and European legislation, on the following:

- One-in, One-out / One-in, Two-out: provide balance of INs and

OUTs (net cost to business – EANCB and number of new / removed

regulations) for One-in, One-out (between January 2011 and

December 2012) and One-in, Two-out (since January 2013).

Departments should note any outstanding measures not yet

validated and therefore not included within the totals. Departments

with a OIOO or OITO deficit should state what action is being taken

to make good the deficit before the end of Parliament.

- Regulatory Policy Committee: number of impact assessments

submitted to the Committee for scrutiny at both consultation and

final stage, and the percentage of measures obtaining a green,

amber, and red opinion.

- Small business: action taken to mitigate regulatory burdens on small

and micro-business, including any progress on their implementation

and details of any impact on business.

1 The Government’s regulatory policy is outlined in Reducing Regulation Made Simple:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31626/10-1155-

reducing-regulation-made-simple.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31626/10-1155-reducing-regulation-made-simple.pdfhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31626/10-1155-reducing-regulation-made-simple.pdf

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- Red Tape Challenge: provide details on decisions taken as a result of

the Red Tape Challenge, including progress on their implementation

and details of any impact on business.

- Sunsetting and Review: number of measures introduced with a

statutory review or sunset clause. Number of post-implementation /

statutory reviews carried out during the year.

- Alternatives to regulation: provide examples of where departments

have, or are planning to, implement alternatives to regulation.

- Implementation and guidance: report on any improvements in how

regulations are implemented. For example, details of any simplified

processes and/or improvements to guidance.

- Focus on Enforcement: provide details of any engagement with the

Focus on Enforcement reviews.

- EU regulations: provide examples of where departments have (a)

reduced unnecessary costs to business stemming from EU policies; (b)

pressed the EU to deliver the recommendations in the Business

Taskforce’s report “Cut EU red tape”; and (c) identified and, where

appropriate, removed gold-plating.

15 Pay Multiples

15.1 Departments should include in their Annual Report and Accounts a narrative highlighting the reasons for any variance in year-on-year multiples. This is because:

- it describes the purpose of including the ratios, and what they mean;

- it ensures transparency in executive remuneration;

- it allows citizens to hold government to account for their use of public funds; and

- it provides departments an opportunity to monitor their own remuneration and note any adverse or anomalous trends.

15.2 The narrative should be concise and clearly linked to the figures disclosed in the remuneration report, and use terms that are easily understandable by the public.

15.3 The narrative should be introduced by the following text:

“Reporting bodies are required to disclose the relationship between the remuneration of the highest-paid director in their organisation and the median remuneration of the organisation’s workforce.

The banded remuneration of the highest-paid director in [the organisation] in the financial year 201X-1Y was £xx (201W-1X, £xx). This was – times (201W-1X,-) the median remuneration of the workforce, which was £xx (201W-1X, £xx).

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In 201X-1Y, xx (201W-1X, xx) employees received remuneration in excess of the highest-paid director. Remuneration ranged from £xx to £xx (201W-1X £xx-£xx)

Total remuneration includes salary, non-consolidated performance-related pay and benefits-in-kind. It does not include severance payments, employer pension contributions and the cash equivalent transfer value of pensions.”

15.4 It should then be followed by a concise and factual explanation of the changes on either side of the ratio, taking into account where relevant:

- Adjustment to the number or composition of the general workforce (e.g. through restructuring, downsizing and outsourcing);

- A change to the remuneration of the most highly paid director. Departments should note that this may not necessarily be an increase to base pay, but a change in taxable expenses or allowances. Where the allowance is temporary (e.g. relocation allowance), departments should note this and its likely impact on the pay multiple.

- A change of the most highly paid director (e.g. a new appointment, or the previously highest paid post having been vacated and/or eliminated); and

- The impact of any pay freeze on the multiple (e.g. senior pay freeze that does not affect the majority of staff.

- The relationship between the remuneration of most highly paid director and that of employees who are not directors but receive remuneration in excess of the most highly paid director.

15.5 The above list is not exhaustive and should be treated only as general guidance. It is not intended to act as a checklist of justifications for higher multiples.

15.6 Questions on this section of the guidance should be addressed to Civil Service Workforce in the Cabinet Office:

Tel: 020 7271 2936 Email: meghal.shah@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

16 Monitoring spending on consultancy and Temporary Staff

16.1 Departments should report spending on consultancy and also on use of contingent labour. This expenditure should include, as separate line items, total consultancy expenditure and contingent labour expenditure incurred by executive agencies and NDPBs. Published data should be on the basis of the definitions of consultancy and contingent labour at Annex A (referred to as temporary staff in this document).

16.2 Departments should note that numbers of non- payroll staff are required in Table 5 and should ensure that the information sources for the numbers of staff and spend are aligned. Departments should provide a supporting narrative to explain the figures provided, to note changes over time and to explain any inconsistencies or limitations in coverage and scope.

mailto:meghal.shah@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

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17 Reporting of high paid off-payroll appointments

17.1 Following the Review of Tax Arrangements of Public Sector Appointees published by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 23 May 2012, departments and their arm’s length bodies must publish information on their highly paid and/or senior off-payroll engagements.

17.2 As part of their annual reports departments should present the following data for all public bodies within their reporting boundaries and in scope of the guidance on off-payroll appointments2:

For all off-payroll engagements as of 31 March 2014, for more than £220 per day and that last for longer than six months

- The total number of existing engagements as of 31 March 2014

- The number that have existed for between one and two years at time of reporting.

- The number that have existed for between two and three years at time of reporting.

- The number that have existed for between three and four years at time of reporting.

- The number that have existed for four or more years at time of reporting.

- Declaration that all existing off-payroll engagements have at some point been subject to a risk based assessment as to whether assurance needs to be sought that the individual is paying the right amount of tax and, where necessary, that assurance has been sought.

Reporting should follow Table 1 in Annex B.

For all new off-payroll engagements between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014, for more than £220 per day and that last for longer than six months

- The number of new engagements.

- The number of new engagements which include contractual clauses giving the department the right to request assurance in relation to income tax and National Insurance obligations.

- The number for whom assurance has been requested

- The number for whom assurance has been requested and received.

- The number for whom assurance has been requested but not received.

- The number that have been terminated as a result of assurance not being received.

2 The scope is the same as that of HM Treasury’s Managing Public Money guidance which covers central government bodies.

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17.3 In any cases where, exceptionally, the department has engaged without including contractual clauses allowing the department to seek assurance as to their tax obligations – or where assurance has been requested and not received, without a contract termination – the department should set out the reasons for this.

17.4 Where an individual leaves before assurance is received this should be reported as terminated as a result of assurance not being received.

17.5 Details of all terminated engagements should be passed to HMRC for further investigation.

17.6 Instances where departments are still waiting for information from the individual at the time of reporting should be reported as not received.

17.7 Reporting should follow Table 2 in Annex B.

For any off-payroll engagements of board members and/or senior officials with significant financial responsibility3 between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 Departments must also disclose:

- The number of off-payroll engagements of board members and/or senior officials with significant financial responsibility

- Details of the exceptional circumstances that led to each of these engagements

- Details of the length of time each of these exceptional engagements lasted

- The total number of employees within the bodies that meet the criteria of “board members and/or senior officials with significant financial responsibility”. This figure should include both off-payroll and on-payroll engagements.

17.8 Questions on this area should be directed to Matthew Smith matthew.smith@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk

18 Reporting on Sustainable Development, Adapting to Climate Change, and Rural Proofing

18.1 The Government is committed to mainstreaming sustainable development (SD), in the way we make policy, run our buildings and purchase goods and services, to maximise the positive impacts on the economy, society and the environment4: Realising this vision relies on the successful delivery of some high profile commitments, including action to tackle climate change, ensuring rural proofing is built into policy, protecting and enhancing the natural environment, building a green economy, and improving our estate’s operations and procurement.

19 Reporting requirements for Sustainable Development

3 In defining “significant financial responsibility” departments should take into account the individual’s level of authority over the organisation’s budget and wider public sector spending. 4 http://sd.defra.gov.uk/gov/vision/

mailto:matthew.smith@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.ukhttp://sd.defra.gov.uk/gov/vision/

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19.1 For Sustainable Development you will need to provide a description of your department’s progress for 2013/14, in particular on the SD commitments set out in your business plan as follows:

1) Progress made against each of the 4 SD commitments set out in the Annex of your 2013/14 business plan. Departmental SD annexes can be found at: http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/content/cross-government-priority/sustainable-development

a) Progress on your tailored SD statement in the annex of your department’s BP.

b) Assessing and managing social and environmental impacts and opportunities in policy development and decision making.

c) Progress on your Department’s plan to deliver on the Greening Government Commitments.

d) Progress on procuring from small businesses with the aspiration that 25% of contracts should be awarded to SMEs.

2) Progress on other policies or projects making a significant contribution to SD – which may or may not have been explicitly referenced in previous business plans (where they have been, please include the Business Plan reference).

19.2 Developing sustainable policies includes mainstreaming the value of nature in decision-making across Government and we expect departments to report on how they have implemented this. The Treasury has published new Supplementary Guidance to the Green Book for use by all Departments, as appropriate on valuing the natural environment in policy and project appraisals:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-supplementary-guidance-environment

20 Reporting requirements for Adapting to Climate Change (ACC)

20.1 Departments should report on the following:

1) A general statement giving assurance that action has been taken to ensure that those policies with long term implications are robust in the face of changing weather, extreme events and sea-level rise from climate change.

2) Any follow-up actions to last year’s report and highlight key policies where impacts from future climate has been a key consideration. For departments with substantial active involvement in developing proposals for the (2013) National Adaptation Programme, it will be sufficient to point to the Programme for coverage of those issues.

21 Reporting requirements for Rural Proofing (RP)

21.1 Departments should provide information on how rural proofing is applied to all aspects of your policy development and implementation cycles, and report on:

http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/content/cross-government-priority/sustainable-developmenthttp://transparency.number10.gov.uk/content/cross-government-priority/sustainable-developmenthttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-supplementary-guidance-environmenthttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-book-supplementary-guidance-environment

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1) Progress on Departmental Business Plan commitments on RP.

2) Other policies or projects making a significant contribution to RP – these may or may not have been explicitly referenced in previous business plans (please include a business plan reference if relevant).

21.2 Defra’s National RP Guidelines outline what questions and actions policy makers should make at each stage of the design, development and implementation of policies. See https://www.gov.uk/rural-proofing-guidance

22 Reporting on supportive processes for Sustainable Development, Climate Change Adaptation and Rural Proofing

22.1 Where not already included in reporting against sections 19 to 21 Departments should also report on how they have supported delivery on SD, ACC, and RP:

Overall governance, decision making:

22.2 How SD is embedded in your overall governance, decision making and assurance processes; how does SD, CCA, and RP feature in performance and project management, including the monitoring of impact assessments, and the effective use of sound evidence in policy making; do these commitments feature in programme and project gateway reviews?

Engagement and challenge:

22.3 Examples of where policy development has been challenged and informed where appropriate through consultation and stakeholder engagement.

People:

22.4 How your department supports its people’s learning and participation on SD, CCA, and RP e.g. performance management; learning modules; tools and guidance for policy makers; awareness campaigns; local champions; volunteering; membership of departmental, government, or external groups.

22.5 Departments should make forward looking commitments for improving performance next year.

For further information contact: sdudiv@defra.gsi.gov.uk

23 Complaints to the Parliamentary Ombudsman

23.1 In response to a recommendation from the Public Administration Select Committee, departments are required to publish information on complaints in their Annual Reports and Accounts. Departments should provide a clearly sign-posted section or sub-section on complaints on the department by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

23.2 Departments should include information from the latest published Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Annual Report on the following:

https://www.gov.uk/rural-proofing-guidancehttps://www.gov.uk/rural-proofing-guidancemailto:sdudiv@defra.gsi.gov.uk

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The number of complaints accepted for investigation by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in the year;

The number of investigations reported on by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in the year and the percentage of those reports where the complaint was:

- upheld in full;

- upheld in part; or

- not upheld.

The number of Ombudsman recommendations:

- complied with; and

- not complied with.

Departments should make clear the financial year that the data covers as the Ombudsman’s timescales may be different to the timescale covered by the other required information in this reporting round.

23.3 In addition to the specific data above, departments should set the numbers above in context by providing one or two short general paragraphs on complaints more widely. It is for departments to decide what content to include here but, for example, it may include a statement on the department’s approach or procedures for dealing with complaints, the overall numbers of complaints dealt with and the cost to the department of doing so, together with any contact information or supplementary data to that taken from the Ombudsman’s latest published report. It is particularly important to include information which demonstrates how the department has learnt from complaints.

24 Protocols on presentation of data

24.1 Expenditure figures will normally be presented in nominal terms. However, figures in real terms may also be included. If so, the latest available series for the GDP deflator should be used.

24.2 Departments should not publish assumptions about future price/pay movements in particular areas. In the case of pay, the publication of future staffing and pay plans would reveal the pay assumptions of departments and could compromise pay negotiations.

25 Other information in the public interest

25.1 Departments should publish any further information in which there is public interest, or which is necessary to ensure accurate, transparent, and meaningful reporting. Departments will need to use their own judgement on exactly what this involves, taking into account the views of stakeholders (including Parliament and in particular the relevant Select Committee). Topics that will normally need to be covered (but are not requirements for all departments where there is nothing material to report) include:

- Numbers of Senior Civil Service staff by pay band;

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- Performance in responding to correspondence from the public;

- Recruitment practice;

- Health and Safety reporting (departments are reminded of the commitment under the Revitalising Strategy for health and safety in the workplace to summarise health and safety performance in annual reports);

- Publicity and advertising; and

- Details of sponsorship agreements over £5,000 (sponsorship is defined as “The payment of a fee or payment in kind by a company in return for the rights of public association with an activity, item, person or property for mutual commercial benefit”. The outline parameters for sponsor involvement in the public sector are: companies’ support should be seen as adding significant benefit to an existing government message or campaign; there should be no overt commercial advantage to the sponsor in terms of the direct sale of products or brands as a result of their association with the government; the project should not be entirely dependent on sponsorship support for its funding).

PRODUCING, LAYING AND PUBLISHING

26 Overview

26.1 All Annual Reports and Accounts affected by this guidance are laid as House of Commons (HC) Papers in the House of Commons.

26.2 Departments may elect to lay their Annual Report and Accounts in the House of Lords as well. Unless there is a requirement to do so, this is optional and otherwise unnecessary.

26.3 As an HC Paper, all Annual Reports and Accounts must meet certain requirements in order to be accepted for laying by the Journal Office. If requirements are not met, the Journal Office may reject the paper and the department will incur further cost in order to correct the paper to make it acceptable for laying.

26.4 The Journal Office has produced detailed guidance on the requirements for laying documents. This is available on the Parliament website http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/laying-papers.pdf

26.5 The National Archives is responsible for ensuring that departments have access to services to support the production of House of Commons and Command Papers. From 6 January 2014 these services will be provided through the Print Vendor Partner contract which is managed by the Government Procurement Service.

26.6 The required physical characteristics of documents are:

- Annual Reports and Accounts must be A4 and be primarily portrait in orientation. Maps, graphs etc, may be presented in landscape.

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/laying-papers.pdf

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- Documents over 32 pages (including printer’s blanks) should have separate card covers.

- Papers should be saddle stitched (stapled through the spine) or perfect bound (glued into a cover); comb or spiral binding should not be used, as your paper will be refused by the Journal Office for laying.

- No foldouts or inserts are allowed.

- No laminated covers (laminated covers, even if biodegradable, are not recyclable).

26.7 In addition to the physical requirements of how papers must be produced, there are also certain requirements relating to the paper’s title page (page 1), title verso page (page 2) and inside/outside covers. The title page should be followed with a title verso page including copyright information and a contents page on the third page of the report. These requirements are all set by the Journal Office.

27 Title page

27.1 The title page (page 1) of a paper should contain the following information:

- The full title of the paper , the statutory name (rather than an abbreviation) of the organisation, and the period covered by the accounts;

- The words “Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on” and the date of laying (in full: date month year). If the date of laying changes late in the publishing process, the title page must be updated accordingly to show the correct date;

- The House of Commons series number, towards the bottom left of the title page, and in a size no smaller than 8 point font (ideally 12 point or larger), the number should be preceded by the abbreviation “HC”. Ideally, this number should also appear on the front cover of the document;

- The legislation or authority under which the paper is being laid in each House. References to laying legislation should be written out in full e.g. for Annual Reports and Accounts laying solely under Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000:

“Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section [normally 6(4)] of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Annual Report presented to the House of Commons by Command of Her Majesty “

- If the entity has also chosen to lay the Annual Report and Accounts in the House of Lords by Command, the following line should also be added:

“Annual Report and Accounts presented to the House of Lords by Command of Her Majesty”

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- If the accounts are laid by another Act, or if there is any variation to this, your presentation lines must cover what is being presented to each House and by which authority e.g. for annual reports that are laid by Act:

“Annual Report presented to Parliament pursuant to [Insert relevant Section] of the [insert name of relevant Act] Act [insert year of Act] Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Accounts presented to the House of Lords by Command of Her Majesty”

- For Pension Scheme accounts, which are not required to include an annual report, the presentation line should be:

“Presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000”

27.2 Journal Office guidance includes examples of title pages. However,

please note that it is the department’s responsibility to ensure that the legislation under which a document is being laid is correct. The Journal Office can advise on the wording of the presentation line, but cannot advise on whether the legislation cited is correct.

28 Title verso page

28.1 The title verso page (page 2) should include the following information:

- Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts include statement on departmental publications for the year:

“This is part of a series of departmental publications which, along with the Main Estimates 2014-15 and the document Public Expenditure: Statistical Analyses 2014, present the Government’s outturn for 2013-14 and planned expenditure for 2014-15”

- Copyright re-use statement, including the year of publication. The current Crown statement will be supplied by the contractor as part of its production service to departments. The statements are also available on The National Archives website http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/how-copyright-applies.htm

- Open Government Licence symbol to appear directly underneath the copyright re-use statement (for Crown copyright publications). The symbol is provided as part of the Crown statement above.

- ISBNs to appear below the OGL symbol.

- Department’s contact details Recycled paper statement.

- Any third party copyright acknowledgements.

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- Printed in the UK statement.

- No images.

29 Other points to remember

29.1 The following should also be considered:

- Front covers: must include department’s proper name, document title (which must match the title page) and the HC number may be included in the bottom left hand corner.

- Back covers: must include the barcode and ISBNs.

- The paper should have a contents page, generally page three, which is not normally combined with other information.

- Text should not appear on either the inside front, or inside back covers.

- Departments may need to update their standing publishing templates from year to year to reflect current guidance. Requirements can change from one year to the next; do not assume that the information and presentation used in previous years will still be correct

29.2 Departments are strongly encouraged to submit title and title-verso pages to the Journal Office and The National Archives before a paper is signed off and printed. These checks can be completed whilst work on the content of the Annual Report and Accounts is still being carried out.

29.3 The Journal Office can be contacted at journaloffice@parliament.uk or by phone on 020 7219 3361 or 3252.

30 Marketing and Advertising Spending Controls

30.1 The Spending Controls are a Cabinet office policy affecting marketing and advertising spending by departments, ALBs and executive agencies. Please note that the Controls do not preclude government organisation from meeting their statutory obligations on parliamentary papers such as annual reports and accounts; and government organisations should take note of how the Controls are applied by their department or parent department.

31 Obtaining a House of Commons number

31.1 The Treasury will contact departments to confirm the date you propose to lay the Annual Report and Accounts and will liaise with the Journal Office to obtain a House of Commons (HC) number and will inform departments. If the proposed laying date later changes, please inform the Treasury, but the HC number will remain valid unless the paper is laid in a different session from the one originally planned. Once departments have a proof ready for press, if you have not already been informed by the Treasury of your HC number, you should contact the general Treasury contact stating the date you wish the accounts to be laid.

mailto:journaloffice@parliament.uk

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31.2 HC numbers can be obtained up to six weeks in advance. Departments will need to inform the contractor of the HC number and laying date so the correct details appear on the final laid and published version. Please let the Treasury know if a printing number is no longer required. A new number is required for each year’s report and accounts.

31.3 Departments should not request HC numbers directly from the Journal Office.

31.4 If a report and a set of accounts/financial statements are to be laid as separate documents but with the same HC number, each volume should be numbered as HC 123–I, HC 123–II etc. The preference of the House is for a single volume paper where possible. It will also be cheaper for departments if the document is a single volume.

32 Production and printing

32.1 The National Archives is responsible for ensuring that departments have access to services to assist them in the production and printing of Annual Reports and Accounts.

32.2 From 6 January 2014 print and other production services will be provided through the Print Vendor Partner Contract (PVP), let to the Williams Lea Group (the contractor) and managed by the Government Procurement Service (GPS). Departments may also purchase print and typesetting services through other suppliers with the approval of the GPS.

32.3 After 6 January departments will be able to continue with their regular TSO contact or liaise with their Williams Lea Account Manager or liaise with their Williams Lea Account Manager. Alternatively, departments can contact the contractor at hmgpublishing@williamslea.com or by phone 020 7394 4272.

32.4 Any queries about using the PVP contract and its charges and fees should be put to departmental Government Procurement Service Print Category contacts.

32.5 The National Archives has produced guidance on the steps involved in the production of parliamentary papers. This can be accessed on The National Archives website at:

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/official-publishing.htm.

32.6 Other useful contact details can be found on The National Archives website at:

http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/how-a-parliamentary-paper-is-produced.htm

32.7 During the production process, the contractor will supply the paper’s ISBNs, barcode; printer line and the latest copyright re-use statement. All Annual Reports and Accounts must contain this information regardless of whether the PVP contractor will print the paper.

32.8 Annual Reports and Accounts must be laid in print even though the paper will be readily available to the general public online.

mailto:hmgpublishing@williamslea.comhttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/official-publishing.htmhttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/official-publishing.htmhttp://nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/how-a-parliamentary-paper-is-produced.htmhttp://nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/how-a-parliamentary-paper-is-produced.htm

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32.9 The contractor will automatically provide printed copies of Annual Reports and Accounts for Parliament if it does the printing.

32.10 If a department does not use the PVP contractor for printing, it should use the contractor’s ‘distribution-only’ service. This replaces the ‘publish-only’ service under the previous contract. Departments using this service should liaise with the contractor early on in the production process to ensure that the appropriate publishing furniture is included within the paper; that Parliament will have sufficient print copies, and that parliamentary delivery requirements, including the delivery date, can be met.

32.11 Departments using the distribution-only service will be responsible for paying for and producing print copies for Parliament. Departments will need to liaise with the contractor to agree a delivery date for print copies which the contractor will then deliver to Parliament.

32.12 Departments are encouraged not to use photocopying technology to print as the paper’s content may fade over time. This is problematic for print copies destined for legal deposit. Papers should be printed digitally or litho, depending on what is most economical and the paper’s print run/number of pages.

32.13 Departments should be aware that around 300 papers are produced during June and July each year, the majority of which are Annual Reports and Accounts. Early liaison with the contractor is strongly advised to ensure any particular requirements can be dealt with within the timeframe available.

33 Laying

33.1 Papers including Annual Reports and Accounts which the House will order to be printed may be laid only on days on which both Houses sit, not on days when either House is adjourned or on which Parliament is prorogued or dissolved. Note that the House of Commons does not normally sit on Fridays except those on which Private Members’ bills are taken. The Journal Office can advise about the days on which the House of Commons is expected to sit.

33.2 “Laying” a paper in the House of Commons consists of delivering, by hand, two complete copies of the paper to the House of Commons Journal Office. For department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, this is done by the Treasury Parliamentary Unit (via the general Treasury contact). Documents are not accepted for laying by post, fax or e-mail. Advice is available from the general Treasury contact. If the paper is to be laid in the Lords, two complete copies of the paper, together with appropriate covering letters must be delivered by hand to the House of Lords Printed Paper Office (see also the House of Commons guidance).

33.3 The Treasury will lay Annual Reports and Accounts before Parliament. The Treasury has set an administrative deadline for 2013-14 annual reports and accounts to be laid by the end of June 2014. The statutory

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deadline for laying remains 31 January in the year following the end of the financial year to which the accounts relate.

33.4 Departments which are required to produce Trust Statements should normally lay them in the same document as the department’s Annual Report and Accounts. The only circumstance where Trust Statements may be laid separately is where there is a delay in completing the Trust Statement and publication of the Annual Report and Accounts would consequently be laid after the administrative deadline. Where, exceptionally, departments think they may need to publish Trust Statements separately; the Treasury’s agreement should be sought.

33.5 Treasury is responsible for laying around 50 separate Annual Reports and Accounts before Parliament and the general Treasury contact will act as the liaison point between departments and the Treasury’s Parliamentary Branch which will undertake the work to ensure the accounts are laid properly.

33.6 The Treasury intends to lay accounts as and when they are completed and can only lay them whilst Parliament is sitting. In order to lay accounts in accordance with the agreed dates, departments should contact the Treasury a few days earlier to ensure the deadline is met. They may also wish to liaise closely with their Parliamentary Clerks. If the need arises to lay Annual Reports and Accounts on a Friday then you should first ensure that the House will be sitting on that day. Further information can be found in the announcements pages of the parliamentary website. (http://www.parliament.uk/what_s_on/recess.cfm)

33.7 Departments should arrange for eight copies of their printed reports and accounts to be sent to the general Treasury contact. Copies should arrive no later than two working days before the laying date. Departments should contact the Treasury if they need to change their timetable for laying. Any changes to the laying date needs to be reflected in the title page which must show the exact date of laying. Departments are reminded that accounts should disclose the date on which they are “authorised for issue” and who gave that authorisation (e.g. the Accounting Officer). For department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, this is normally the date of the Certificate and Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This information should NOT appear on the document’s title page.

33.8 The laying copies should be the final printed version. If professionally printed copies are unavailable, laying copies can be proofs in which the text is correct and complete and signed by the C&AG. Pagination should be the same as the final printed version. Pictures do not have to be included, but captions to them should be. The title page must meet the requirements described in section 27 (see above). Where typeset accounts are being laid, these should be a copy of the final version that has been signed off by the C&AG and contains all the relevant signatures. Let us know in advance if you plan to lay a proof copy.

http://www.parliament.uk/what_s_on/recess.cfm

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33.9 When a proof copy is laid, and it is not possible to have professionally printed copies available on the day of laying, it is the department’s responsibility to ensure that hard copies are available to MPs. Therefore, note that in addition to the copies provided to the Treasury for laying, it will be necessary to arrange through a department’s parliamentary section a further 25 copies to be supplied to the Vote Office to coincide with laying. A further 10 copies will need to be supplied to the Printed Paper Office in the House of Lords if the paper is being laid there. Failure to meet these requirements is likely to result in formal complaints from the House. Once the final version of the accounts is published, eight copies should be sent to the Treasury to replace the proof versions.

33.10 Further guidance on laying is available in the Journal Office’s guidance.

34 Publishing

34.1 It is the preference of the House that reports are laid and published on the same day. Annual Reports and Accounts cannot be published until they have been laid; to do so would be considered a grave discourtesy to the House, and may undermine the document’s parliamentary privilege. The version laid in Parliament must be exactly the same as the version made available for MPs and published online.

34.2 Immediately after laying, or at an agreed embargo time, a paper’s web optimised PDF must be published www.gov.uk so that the public can access it. A department may publish directly to www.gov.uk, or alternatively, the contractor will able to do so at no additional cost. If a department also has its own website it may publish the paper on that website as well.

34.3 There is no requirement for print copies to be made available for sale to the public. However Annual Reports and Accounts must be printed for the purposes of laying, providing copies to MPs and to fulfil current statutory legal deposit requirements.

34.4 Annual Reports and Accounts published online should be exactly the same as the laid version. The web optimised PDF of the Annual Report and Accounts should meet government accessibility guidelines. If you require the contractor to make the PDF accessible this will incur an extra cost.

34.5 In addition, departments should ensure that the paper’s print ready PDF is also uploaded to www.gov.uk and published at the same time as the web optimised PDF. Suppliers wishing to produce and sell professionally printed copies to the public will be able to use the print PDF to do so.

34.6 The print PDF is the PDF used to create professionally printed copies. It can be obtained from the contractor or other printer used. As with the web optimised PDF a department may publish the print PDF directly to www.gov.uk, or alternatively, the contractor will able to do so at no additional cost.

http://www.gov.uk/http://www.gov.uk/http://www.gov.uk/http://www.gov.uk/

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34.7 Should it be necessary to make corrections or changes to a department’s Annual Report and Accounts after printing or publishing please see section 37.

34.8 Once the paper has been published the contractor will fulfil statutory legal deposit obligations and disseminate bibliographic data about the paper on behalf of the department.

35 Publication time

35.1 When discussing publication timings, departments should be aware that Members are entitled to view the laid copies from the moment that they are laid, and that following the Speaker's Ruling5 copies must be available for Members from the Vote Office and the Printed Papers Office shortly after laying. Although it is possible to place embargo stickers on the document, Members cannot be obliged to observe the embargo, so this could have implications if departments were hoping to keep the contents of the document confidential until full publication. Consequently, the Journal Office advise that the document is published as soon as possible following laying of the document.

35.2 The Comptroller and Auditor General follows ISA 720 Appendix 1 guidance on electronic publishing, to the extent that it is applicable in the central Government environment. NAO auditors will take a view on the responsibility for the upkeep of departmental electronic financial statements, and will consider adding a note to their audit certificate, appearing on the website, to this effect.

35.3 These requirements also apply to the accounts of sponsored bodies, and therefore Principal Accounting Officers are asked to ensure that their sponsored bodies have systems in place to ensure that electronically published annual accounts are identical to those published in hard copy, and that secure systems are in place for the maintenance of and integrity of their websites.

36 Publicity and press releases

36.1 Departments will also need to consider the coordination of publicity/press releases in relation to the publication of their Annual Reports and Accounts and liaise with the general Treasury contact as necessary. Departments should also liaise with their NAO Assignment Manager on publication and associated communications issues. Publication dates should be agreed with the NAO. Departments will have the opportunity to comment on any press notice the NAO intend to issue relating to the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, or the C&AG’s report on those accounts. Likewise, Departments should also ensure the NAO have the opportunity to comment on departmental press statements before they are issued. Any queries about publication

5 Speaker’s Ruling 25

th March 2009

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090325/debtext/90325-

0003.htm#09032538000004

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090325/debtext/90325-0003.htm#09032538000004http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090325/debtext/90325-0003.htm#09032538000004

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arrangements should be addressed to the department’s publishing team in the first instance.

37 Corrections and changes

37.1 The published paper is required to have the same text as the laid version and that submitted for legal deposit.

37.2 If the paper was accepted for laying with stickering (incorrect text on the title page stickered over with the correct text), please ensure that the published paper includes the final laid text.

37.3 Further information on making corrections to printed, laid and/or

published Annual Reports and Accounts can be found on The National

Archives website http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-

management/our-services/how-to-correct-a-paper.htm

38 Queries

38.1 Any queries should be addressed as follows:

Query Contact Telephone

General questions on the paper

Philip Trotter 020 7270 4538

Questions regarding performance reporting

Simon Madden 020 7271 3554

Questions regarding Common Core Tables

Steven Melbourne 020 7270 1154

39 Previous PES papers

39.1 Electronic versions of PES papers issued since June 2000 to November 2010 - can be found on the HM Treasury website at: http://www.hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk/psd/pes_papers/pes_papers_home.htm. PES papers from December 2010 are located at the Civil Pages which are also on the gsi: http://www.civilpages.gsi.gov.uk/display/pubexp/Home

http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/how-to-correct-a-paper.htmhttp://nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/how-to-correct-a-paper.htmhttp://www.hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk/psd/pes_papers/pes_papers_home.htmhttp://www.hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk/psd/pes_papers/pes_papers_home.htmhttp://www.civilpages.gsi.gov.uk/display/pubexp/Home

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Annex A

Professional Services External Resources (non-payroll staff) – Definitions

Professional services external resources can generally be split into two broad categories:

Temporary staff Temporary (agency) workers Interim managers Specialist Contractors

Consultancy Finance IT/IS Strategy Legal Property and Construction Human Resource, Training and

Education Technical Marketing and Communications Organisation and change

management Procurement PPM

Understanding the difference between different types of resource is essential to ensure that the right type of service and skills are purchased, at the right price and from the right supplier so that value for money is achieved. Detailed descriptions of these resources are covered on the following pages. Please note that these definitions apply to Central Government only – Local Government categorisation may differ.

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Temporary (non-payroll) Staff The provision of workers to cover business-as-usual or service delivery activities within an organisation. Temporary Staff are also often referred to as “Contingent Labour”.

Temporary Workers – Admin and Clerical

Admin & Clerical agency staff are normally lower grade individuals who are actually filling in for a role within the organisational structure and are ideally used on a short term basis. normally engaged on an ad hoc or temporary basis to fulfil

requirements within established posts. involves providing cover (e.g. for a vacancy, holiday or sickness) or

additional resource (e.g. for a seasonal peak in workload). may be undertaking operational or professional roles.

Interim Managers

Interims are normally middle- to senior-grade staff working in an organisation, concerned with the fulfilment of particular professional functional or senior management positions within the organisational structure (usually covering Business-as-Usual activities or providing cover for a role) and ideally engaged on a short term basis. may involve providing cover (e.g. for a vacancy, holiday or sickness) or

additional resource (e.g. for a new team until someone is recruited, or a seasonal peak in workload).

may include Professional Interim Staff (e.g. senior qualified professionals in areas such as legal, finance, audit) and Interim Managers (including up to the most senior levels of the organisation).

likely to include a degree of organisational involvement (e.g. managing staff, representation at meetings)

typically engaged through an agency although in some cases may be engaged directly

Specialist Contractors

Specialists are normally middle to senior grades, used to provide expertise that is not available in-house, fulfilling functional or senior positions within the organisational structure and ideally engaged on a short term basis. may include sub-categories of Finance, HR, IT, Legal, Logistics,

Marketing, Medical, Procurement, Estates, Technical and Other. not staff substitution; specialists are used to provide additional resource,

skills and expertise, not to cover vacancies etc. should not include management functions or similar organisational

involvement. usually involved in a defined package of work or project rather than

covering a day-to-day workload or defined job/ role. in some instances, may include a degree of organisational involvement

(e.g. managing staff, representation at meetings) not always provided through an agency.

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Consultancy The provision to Management of objective advice relating to strategy, structure, management or operations of an organisation, in pursuit of its purposes and objectives. Such advice will be provided outside the ‘business-as-usual’ environment when in-house skills are not available and will be time-limited. Consultancy may include the identification of options with recommendations, or assistance with (but not the delivery of) the implementation of solutions.

Finance Consultancy

The provision of objective finance advice including advice relating to corporate financing structures, accountancy, control mechanisms and systems. This includes both strategic and operational finance.

IT/IS Consultancy The provision of objective IT/IS advice including that relating to IT/ IS systems and concepts, strategic IT/IS studies and development of specific IT/IS projects. Advice related to defining information needs, computer feasibility studies, making computer hardware evaluations and to e-business should also be included.

Strategy Consultancy

The provision of strategic objective advice including advice relating to corporate strategies, appraising business structures, Value for Money reviews, business performance measurement, management services, product or service design, and process and production management.

Legal Consultancy The provision of external legal advice and opinion including advice in connection with the policy formulation and strategy development particularly on commercial and contractual matters.

Property & Construction Consultancy

Provision of specialist advice relating to property services and estates including portfolio management, design, planning and construction, tenure, holding and disposal strategies.

Human Resource, Training & Education Consultancy

The provision of objective HR advice including advice on the formulation of recruitment, retention, manpower planning and HR strategies, and advice and assistance relating to the development of training and education strategies.

Technical Consultancy

The provision of technical advice including the provision of technical studies, prototyping and technical demonstrators, concept development, project and task based technical advice.

Marketing & Communications Consultancy

The provision of objective marketing and communications advice including advice on the development of publicising and the promotion of the Department’s Business Support programmes, including advice on design, programme branding, media handling, and advertising.

Organisation & Change Management Consultancy

Provision of objective advice relating to the strategy, structure management and operations of an organisation in pursuit of it purposes and objectives. Advice related to long range planning, re-organisation of structure, rationalisation of services, general business appraisal of organisation should also be included.

Procurement Consultancy

The provision of objective procurement advice including advice in establishing procurement strategies.

PPM Consultancy The provision of advice relating to ongoing programmes and one-off projects. Advisory support in assessing, managing and or mitigating the potential risks involved in a specific initiative; work to ensure expected benefits of a project are realised.

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Annex B Table 1: For all off-payroll engagements as of 31 March 2014, for more than £220 per day and that last for longer than six months

Main department ALB 1 ALB 2 No. of existing engagements as of 31 March 2014

Of which...

No. that have existed for between one and two years at time of reporting.

No. that have existed for between two and three years at time of reporting.

No. that have existed for between three and four years at time of reporting.

No. that have existed for four or more years at time of reporting.

Confirmation that all existing off-payroll engagements have at some point been subject to a risk based assessment as to whether assurance is required that the individual is paying the right amount of tax and, where necessary, that assurance has been sought.

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Table 2: For all new off-payroll engagements between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014, for more than £220 per day and that last for longer than six months

In any cases where, exceptionally, the department has engaged without including contractual clauses allowing the department to seek assurance as to their tax obligations –