The Government have set out their ambition to fundamentally rewire the British state so that it works for working people and delivers the plan for change. To support this agenda, I am taking forward wide-ranging reforms to modernise and reform the architecture of public spending, alongside improving levels of delegation and reducing the burden of compliance reporting HM Treasury currently requests from Departments. This will be a key contribution to our ambition of an agile and productive state.
Under these reforms, HM Treasury is developing a technology solution that enables live sharing of financial, outcome and performance data at both a departmental and programme level. This will modernise the way that the Government undertake spending control—meaning that HM Treasury and Departments will have a shared understanding in real time of how Departments are performing against their budgets and objectives.
The Cabinet Secretary has written to all Secretaries of State and permanent secretaries, setting out his expectation that they should be accountable for ensuring their departmental financial and performance systems are fully integrated with HM Treasury systems at the conclusion of this project.
Following the publication of the spending review, all Departments will be participating in feasibility work for this initiative which will include an audit of their current systems and data approaches, to deliver on this vision and take Government and public spending towards a new technology-enabled operation.
HM Treasury are working with Cabinet Office to ensure this aligns with the shared services strategy for Government and wider functional system reform and will deliver this change in line with our agreed principles for civil service reform. Departments are being encouraged to support HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to understand what improvements to delegations, conditions and reporting requirements could be made to improve Government delivery.
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