We will give taxpayers an aerial view of how their cash is being spent
4 min read
Over the past few weeks, the reconstituted Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been gearing up to scrutinise policy delivery across government. Having served as deputy chair of the PAC for seven years under Meg Hillier’s excellent chairmanship, the privilege of my election as committee chair has felt rather like a homecoming.
What feels equally familiar in these early days of the committee’s work is the plethora of ongoing challenges for government in delivering its planned policies. So, as we shift from assessing the effectiveness of the previous government’s delivery to that of the incumbents, we will not be resting on our laurels; for there is much to do.
Within a couple of days of the appointment of the committee’s membership, we had launched 18 inquiries. These aim to tackle an illuminating cross-section of areas including health, homelessness, the environment, tax, transport, education, technology, and the asylum and justice systems.
We will aim to use the PAC’s uniquely wide focus across government to provide the aerial view of how well taxpayers’ money is being spent across the public realm. As chair, I will ensure that the committee continues to keep at the heart of its work the ways in which our constituents are impacted by government policy.
Nowhere is that impact more widely felt than in the NHS. The National Audit Office (NAO) found in July that the system was in danger of breaking; the current government’s position is that it is broken. These descriptions of services on which all of us depend are a landmark moment of alarming enormity, and we will be looking with great urgency at how well operational improvements are implemented.
Our committee will also be probing the systemic failure of dangerous cladding. According to the NAO, of the 9,000 to 12,000 buildings over 11m in height that the government estimates need remediation, up to 60 per cent are yet to be identified, with work still to start on half those that have been.
I met a number of residents who were completely traumatised by the Grenfell fire shortly after it had happened. As a chartered surveyor I take a personal interest in building safety. I know I speak for all our members when I say we want to do everything in our power to make sure Grenfell can never happen again.
There is not space here to go into detail on the full range of the PAC’s programme, but I would like to mention our inquiry into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in government. In an environment in which the civil service is under constant pressure to do more with less, many believe digital and other technologies like AI could offer solutions. It has the potential to both transform and disrupt almost every area of life, with implications for a multitude of the policy areas under PAC’s remit.
Our committee shall be exploring how AI will change government’s operations, and how government in turn is mitigating any risks involved. We will want to make sure any adoption is done in a way that both safely and ethically augments services.
I’ve also laid down a marker to all government departments, with whom the PAC will continue to provide that effective challenge. Any inadequate responses to our inquiries will be given short shrift. I’ve also told departments to routinely consider the diversity of those they send to give evidence, in order that we can be confident our inquiries hear from the widest possible range of voices.
As chair, I will be doing everything possible to empower our new members to take full part in the committee’s scrutiny. My door is also open to any colleagues who have relevant issues which they feel should be raised in our inquiries. The administration may have changed, but the PAC’s role in holding government accountable for delivering for those who most rely upon it certainly has not.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and Conservative MP for North Cotswolds
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