UK ministers hope they will eventually be able to access live information showing departmental delivery and financial performance, under proposals launched by the Treasury to try to keep closer tabs on all government spending.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, set out plans to “transform and upgrade” the government’s central finance system using new technology inspired by the private sector — although he admitted that this could take years to implement.
Currently all departments track their own spending and performance, only sharing data with the Treasury through manual uploads in online spreadsheets.
That means the Treasury does not have real-time access to departments’ finance and performance management data or departmental spending and its impact.
Jones said on Thursday he hoped ministers would receive access to real-time performance data at both a departmental and programme level, if the initiative is a success.
The Treasury said ministers would be able to see “which programmes are over and underspending, which projects are delivering or not, and how departments are performing against their budgets and objectives”.
Officials admitted that the technology did not yet exist but said that the government wanted to kick off a procurement process for creating and implementing the programme.
In a question-and-answer session after his speech at the Institute for Government, a Whitehall think-tank, Jones said it could take several years to set up the system given how long such things take in the private sector.
But he told the audience that the Labour party wanted to “rewire the state” to better deliver people’s priorities.
“I am convinced that through investment and reform, we can deliver a more productive and agile state that delivers better outcomes,” he said.
“HM Treasury will be using technology to analyse finance and performance data in real time and free up departments to focus on delivery instead of Treasury compliance reporting.”
