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The Â鶹Éç has strengthened its approach to managing its finances but should improve its financial reporting systems, according to a report by the National Audit Office (the NAO) for the Â鶹Éç Trust published today. This is to ensure the Â鶹Éç can monitor more frequently how its spending aligns with its strategic and editorial priorities.

The NAO's findings included the following:

• The Â鶹Éç has successfully challenged its costs through a series of efficiency programmes. However, limitations in its financial systems mean that financial reporting is slow and resource intensive and that the Â鶹Éç cannot easily monitor what it is spending against its strategic and editorial priorities, which will become more critical as resources become squeezed.
• Following recommendations in previous NAO reports, the Â鶹Éç has begun to benchmark its costs, both internally and with other organizations, but it is not clear that the results of benchmarking have so far influenced the Â鶹Éç's cost reduction plans.
• The Â鶹Éç is making more effective use of the skills and independence of its non-executive directors to help it scrutinise and challenge major financial decisions, following concerns raised previously by the Public Accounts Committee that the Â鶹Éç did not subject spending decisions to sufficient challenge.
• When comparing annual results against forecasts, the Â鶹Éç has underspent against its forecast by at least 3 per cent in each of the last four years. The NAO notes that some level of underspend may be prudent; however, there needs to be close scrutiny to ensure that the Â鶹Éç is clear about how much resource could be available for reallocation.

The NAO also recommends that the Â鶹Éç Trust and Ofcom work together to explore the scope for coordinating the information they require the Â鶹Éç to report to them, as current separate reporting arrangements and timescales take up resources that could be better used elsewhere.

In its response to the NAO report, also published today, the Â鶹Éç Executive has committed to further improving the integration of its financial and performance reporting. The Executive is already upgrading its financial systems over the next eighteen months, to produce simpler, more standardised reports.

The Trust is satisfied that the actions the Executive has set out are appropriate. In its response to the NAO's report, it has said:

• The Trust welcomes the NAO's overall conclusion that the Â鶹Éç's approach to financial management provides effective support in delivering value for money for the Â鶹Éç. We also welcome the NAO's finding that the Â鶹Éç has established strong governance arrangements and there is effective challenge at senior levels, including from the Trust and non-executive directors.
• The Trust will closely monitor the implementation of improvements to the Â鶹Éç's financial reporting arrangements, and will challenge the Executive to go even further in some areas such as the quality of information available to senior managers.
• While the Trust requires specific financial and performance information from the Executive as part of its role to scrutinise the Â鶹Éç's performance on behalf of licence fee payers, it will work with Ofcom to identify whether there are opportunities to co-ordinate the financial information that each body requires from the Â鶹Éç.
• The Trust will ask the Executive to report back on the progress against the actions agreed in response to today's report.

Anthony Fry, Â鶹Éç Trustee with lead responsibility for value for money, said:

"We are pleased that the NAO has concluded that Â鶹Éç's approach to managing its finances has improved and supports the Â鶹Éç's delivery of value for money for licence fee payers.

"At a time when the Â鶹Éç's resources are being squeezed and when it needs to achieve substantial savings over the next few years, getting this right is more important than ever and we will ensure that the improvements the Executive has committed to make are delivered – and that it goes even further where possible."

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said today:

"The Â鶹Éç has strengthened its approach to financial management which has helped it meet savings targets in the past. I welcome the improvements it has made.

"The Â鶹Éç now needs to make sure it can monitor more frequently how its spending decisions align with its strategic and editorial priorities. This will put it in a better position to decide how best it uses its shrinking resource, in a way that offers value for money for the licence fee payer and still delivers the performance viewers and listeners expect."

Notes for Editors

1. Under the Delivering Quality First programme, the Â鶹Éç is required to achieve sustainable savings of 20 per cent of its annual spending by 2016-17. The Â鶹Éç also needs to manage its pension fund deficit, the reorganisation of its estate and its response to technological developments.

2. Press notices and reports are available from the date of publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.

3. The National Audit Office scrutinises public spending for Parliament and is independent of government. The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Amyas Morse, is an Officer of the House of Commons and leads the NAO, which employs some 860 staff. The C&AG certifies the accounts of all government departments and many other public sector bodies. He has statutory authority to examine and report to Parliament on whether departments and the bodies they fund have used their resources efficiently, effectively, and with economy.