The Department’s Accounting Officer wrote to the Public Accounts Committee on 28 January 2025, setting out further detail behind the excess and the Comptroller & Auditor General’s qualification of his audit opinion on the Department’s 2023–24 Annual Report and Accounts.4 We expect to raise this matter again as part of our ongoing scrutiny of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts. 4 Letter from Department for Business and Trade to PAC dated 18 January 2025 8

The Department’s Accounting Officer wrote to the Public Accounts Committee on 28 January 2025, setting out further detail behind the excess and the Comptroller & Auditor General’s qualification of his audit opinion on the Department’s 2023–24 Annual Report and Accounts.4 We expect to raise this matter again as part of our ongoing scrutiny of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts. 4 Letter from Department for Business and Trade to PAC dated 18 January 2025 8 Type: conclusion | Number: 21 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: 3. PAC conclusion: The Department for Business and Trade was authorized a Voted Resource Annually Managed Expenditure limit of £950,594,000. Against this limit, it incurred an outturn of £1,169,995,000 exceeding the authorized limit by £219,401,000. 3a. PAC recommendation: Under the terms of the Sta