The NAO reports that, by not tracking spend across its work on air quality, government risks being unable to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of its spending on the issue. The NAO highlighted the example of government’s preparations for EU Exit, where it found that a lack of spending information at a cross-government level created risks to financial management, programme management, and public accountability.40 We have seen similar weaknesses in government’s approach to Net Zero, with...

The NAO reports that, by not tracking spend across its work on air quality, government risks being unable to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of its spending on the issue. The NAO highlighted the example of government’s preparations for EU Exit, where it found that a lack of spending information at a cross-government level created risks to financial management, programme management, and public accountability.40 We have seen similar weaknesses in government’s approach to Net Zero, with neither the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy nor HM Treasury collating information on the total costs and benefits of government po Type: conclusion | Number: 25 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: 4. PAC conclusion: Although calculating an exact figure may be difficult, with Departments claiming it would be a great deal of effort to produce something not necessarily precise, Government could do more to improve the transparency of cross-government public sp