* “departments are not meeting government requirements on publishing evaluation plans and findings”
* more than one-third of chief analysts saying they are “only sometimes” able to publish evaluation findings as required
* In December 2019 . . . £276 billion of taxpayers’ money [spent on projects] – had no evaluation at all.
* Since 2013 only 9 out of 17 Government departments have published their list of business-critical models
* HM Treasury has only just started to ask departments to explain why they don’t plan to publish some evaluations
* government departments do not adequately assess the range of plausible outcomes and are overly reliant on central estimates
Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier summed up:
> “Government spends hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on major projects with no evidence what is working or idea what to do when it isn’t . . .
> “That is absolutely unacceptable. Facing intertwined crises in our environment, energy supply and cost-of-living, every penny counts. Government must show its cards and prove it is delivering, and stop a programme quickly when it doesn’t deliver – not gamble away taxpayers’ money.”
3 comments
The committee published the report today on their website: [Government has no evidence £hundreds of billions of spending is working](https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/171111/government-has-no-evidence-hundreds-of-billions-of-spending-is-working/)
The covering page has some surprising statements:
* “departments are not meeting government requirements on publishing evaluation plans and findings”
* more than one-third of chief analysts saying they are “only sometimes” able to publish evaluation findings as required
* In December 2019 . . . £276 billion of taxpayers’ money [spent on projects] – had no evaluation at all.
* Since 2013 only 9 out of 17 Government departments have published their list of business-critical models
* HM Treasury has only just started to ask departments to explain why they don’t plan to publish some evaluations
* government departments do not adequately assess the range of plausible outcomes and are overly reliant on central estimates
Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier summed up:
> “Government spends hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on major projects with no evidence what is working or idea what to do when it isn’t . . .
> “That is absolutely unacceptable. Facing intertwined crises in our environment, energy supply and cost-of-living, every penny counts. Government must show its cards and prove it is delivering, and stop a programme quickly when it doesn’t deliver – not gamble away taxpayers’ money.”
The full report can be read [as a webpage](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmpubacc/254/report.html) or [as a PDF](https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/22451/documents/165470/default/).
That’s a feature not a bug.
Many policies that make sense to people are in fact fucking stupid and will never work.
But once you have committed…
Put a clown in charge and nobody gives a shit, let the clown do what he wants and never hold him to account then everything will soon fall down.
I hope what is left over is recoverable once this troop of clowns is out.