The Department and bodies within its Group have had a number of financial governance and accounting failures in recent years. The Department Core and Group accounts have been qualified by the C&AG for the past two years. In both 2020–21 and 2021–22 there was a ‘true and fair’ qualification arising in respect of inventory, this arose as the Department was unable to perform stock takes to evidence the existence, completeness and valuation of inventory.55 The Department acknowledged that the inv...

The Department and bodies within its Group have had a number of financial governance and accounting failures in recent years. The Department Core and Group accounts have been qualified by the C&AG for the past two years. In both 2020–21 and 2021–22 there was a ‘true and fair’ qualification arising in respect of inventory, this arose as the Department was unable to perform stock takes to evidence the existence, completeness and valuation of inventory.55 The Department acknowledged that the inventory qualification will remain until the Department has disposed of all of the excess and unusable PPE it has.56 Type: conclusion | Number: 28 | Response status: accepted Government response: 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2023 6.2 As the Committee is aware, the department has undertaken a financial reset programme. This programme established robust financial controls and governance across the department and its arms’ l