HM Treasury Treasury Minutes on the Twenty Fourth to the Thirtieth, the Thirty Second to the Thirty Ninth, the Forty Fifth, and the Forty Seventh to the Forty Eighth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session 2008-09 Cm 7717 (2008/9) ISBN 9780101771726 CORRECTION On the title page (page 1), the title for the 47th Report should read as follows: DH: Reducing Alcohol Harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse November 2009 London: The Stationery Office Treasury Minutes on the Twenty Fourth to the Thirtieth, the Thirty Second to the Thirty Ninth, the Forty Fifth, and the Forty Seventh to the Forty Eighth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session 2008-09 Presented to Parliament by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury by Command of Her Majesty October 2009 Cm 7717 £19.15 Treasury Minutes on the Twenty Fourth to the Thirtieth, the Thirty Second to the Thirty Ninth, the Forty Fifth, and the Forty Seventh to the Forty Eighth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session 2008-09 24th Report DCMS: Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces 25th Report DCMS: Radio production efficiency at the BBC 26th Report HMRC: Management of tax debt 27th Report DCSF: Building schools for the future: renewing the secondary school estate 28th Report HO: Management of asylum application by the UK Border Agency 29th Report DH: Pay modernisation in the NHS: agenda for change 30th Report MOD: Type 45 Destroyer 32nd Report HMT: Financial management in the EU 33rd Report DCLG: Planning for homes: speeding up planning applications for major housing developments in England 34th Report DEFRA: Natural England’s role in improving sites of special scientific interest 35th Report MOJ: Administration of the Crown Court 36th Report DEFRA: Health of livestock and honeybees in England 37th Report CO: Building the capacity of the Third Sector 38th Report HMRC: The control and facilitation of imports 39th Report DECC: Warm Front Scheme 45th Report CO: Assessment of the Capability Review Programme 47th Report DH: Reducing alcohol related crime 48th Report DCSF: Renewing the physical infrastructure of English further education colleges Presented to Parliament by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury by Command of Her Majesty October 2009 Cm 7717 £19.15 TREASURY MINUTES DATED 29 OCTOBER 2009 ON THE TWENTY FOURTH TO THE THIRTIETH, THE THIRTY SECOND TO THE THIRTY NINTH, THE FORTY FIFTH, AND THE FORTY SEVENTH TO THE FORTY EIGHTH REPORTS FROM THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS SESSION 2008-09 © Crown Copyright 2009 The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and other departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified. Where we have identified any third party copyright material you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. For any other use of this material please write to Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU or e-mail: [email protected] ISBN: 978 0 10 177172 6 Printed in the UK by The Stationery Office Limited on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office ID E002653557 10/09 19585 642 Twenty Fourth Report Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and HM Treasury (HMT) Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces 1. The Occupied Royal Palaces Estate (the Estate) consists of Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, Windsor Castle, and parts of Kensington Place, Hampton Court Mews and Windsor Home Park. The 360-odd individual buildings that make up the Palaces are held in trust for the nation and used to support the official duties of The Sovereign as Head of State. The Palaces are used for a variety of functions including State visits, and receptions and dinners. Buckingham Palace and Buckingham Palace Mews, Clarence House, Windsor Castle and Frogmore House are open to paying visitors at certain times of the year. 2. The cost of maintaining the Palaces falls to the Government. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (the Department) gives the Household an annual grant to maintain and run the Palaces, which has remained at around £15 million since 2000-01. There are separate grants for which other Government Departments are responsible. 3. The Department is accountable to Parliament for the upkeep of the Estate, but since 1991 has delegated day-to-day responsibility to the Household. The Department and the Household have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which sets out their respective roles and responsibilities. The Household’s Property Services Section manages maintenance on a day-to-day basis, and the Keeper of the Privy Purse is responsible for the management of the Property Services Section and stewardship of the grant in aid. 4. The Royal Collection Trust, an independent charitable trust, is responsible for the works of art held in trust for the nation. The Trust manages visitor admission to the Palaces and receives the income generated, which in 2007-08 totalled £28 million. The Trust shares some of the Windsor Castle income with the Household (£1.8 million in 2007-08), and from April 2009 the Trust plans to share income from visitors to Buckingham Palace with the Household. 5. On the basis of a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Committee took evidence from the Department and the Household. In addition, the Committee visited Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, St James Palace, and Windsor Castle to see a selection of the Household’s maintenance projects. PAC Conclusion (1): The Household has reported that there is a £32 million backlog of maintenance work but this is not supported by rigorous analysis. In the absence of a consistent approach to assessing the condition of the Estate and calculating the backlog, and without an assessment of the practical consequences of the backlog, the Department and the Household cannot be sure how big the problem is or what to do about it. The Household should define criteria for inspecting the condition of the Estate, agree with the Department the basis for calculating the maintenance backlog and, before the end of 2009, set out a plan for managing it. 6. The Department partially agrees with the Committee’s conclusion. The backlog figure of £32 million reported in the Royal Household’s 2007-08 Annual Report is an estimate of how much will be needed in ten year’s time if the grant in aid remains at £15 million a year, not at the present. 7. The Household is confident that its assessment of the backlog is well founded. However, it is recognised that the records of condition should be improved, so that they are consistent. The Household is considering the use of software developed by Defence Estates, which measures ‘target’ condition and ‘actual’ condition based upon specific definitions of condition for each part of a building. It is proposed to evaluate this software by the end of 2009 and, assuming that it is successful and the criteria agreed with the Department, to record all of the Estate on the software by the end of 2011. A member of the Property Section management team has been transferred to the role of Estates Surveyor to undertake this major task. 1 PAC Conclusion (2): Work required to repair the Mausoleum, a monument of national importance, has been outstanding for 14 years and its condition is getting worse. Repairing the Mausoleum would cost around £3 million but resource constraints mean the Household has no plans to do the required work. Ultimately, the condition of the estate is a matter for the Department, which should identify how the restoration of the Mausoleum can be funded without impacting on the Household’s resources for maintaining the rest of the Estate. 8. The Department agrees with the Committee that with a project of the complexity of the repair of the Mausoleum, other means of funding may need to be found. Together with English Heritage, the Household is currently assessing the nature of the deterioration and what is necessary to slow or arrest that deterioration. When the Household has updated its detailed estimates for repair and agreed a strategy for carrying out the work, the Department will consider it alongside other priorities, and in the light of the Household’s other resources. PAC Conclusion (3): The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is accountable to Parliament for the upkeep of the Occupied Royal Palaces but does not have a firm grip on its responsibilities. The Department has set the Household an objective for the condition of the Estate, but does not measure the Household’s performance, and has allowed a maintenance backlog to build up despite our warning that this might happen. The Department should establish performance measures that keep it appraised of the condition of the Estate starting in the 2009-10 financial year. 9. The Department does not agree with the conclusion that it does not have a firm grip on its responsibilities. The Household’s property maintenance work is monitored on an ongoing basis by the Department’s specialist consultants, Watts PLC, who report to the Department on a regular basis. The reports are shared with the Household, and any issues are discussed and resolved. It is anticipated that the Household will agree performance indicators with the Department to assess actual condition against target condition for each part of the Estate from December 2009 with the whole Estate completed by December 2011. The software provided by Defence Estates may also help focus expenditure to highlight where the most significant improvements can be made.