Whole of Government Accounts 2009-10

HC 1696, Sixty-seventh Report of Session of 2010-12 - Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence

Author:

House of Commons - Committeee of Public Accounts

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

Price: £10.00

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The report 'Whole of Government Accounts 2009-10' follows HM Treasury's first audit of the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA), covering the year 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 (see below). The Committee welcomes this major step forward in improving transparency and accountability.

Some of the information highlighted by the Committee includes:

• at 31 March 2010 the Government's public service pensions liability was around £1,132 billion;

• the present value of its future commitments under Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes was £131.5 billion;

• the Government wrote off £10.9 billion in unpaid taxes and expected to have to pay £15.7 billion for outstanding clinical negligence claims;

• the cost of future nuclear decommissioning is estimated at £56.7 billion; and

• there is a need for stronger accountability systems to secure effective responsibility of cost and value for money at local levels.

One of the key issues identified by the report details the Treasury's decision to deviate from accounting standards, by omitting Network Rail, the publicly owned banks, and various other Government-controlled or owned bodies from the WGA.

The figures in the first audited WGA were criticised as outdated because the Treasury took 20 months to prepare and publish the report. The Treasury must address the issues that led the Comptroller and Auditor General to qualify his audit opinion on the WGA 2009-10.

The WGA will only highlight what the Government owns, owes, spends and receives if it is timely and robust and the Committee has set out the principles that future accounts should follow.

Extent	34 pages	ISBN	9780215041593
Size	A4	Price	£10.00
Format	Paperback	Published	07 Feb 2012
Availability	Colour copy: 3 - 5 days	Delivery	Delivery options and charges