Speeches by Hall.

“A lot of the transformation work and efficiencies are around AI. We will not be able to do any of that while we have legacy systems in place that are not giving us the good data we need to move forwards.”

“I guess it comes down to ownership—to who is responsible for driving this forwards—and monitoring. You mentioned best practice and benchmarking on an annual basis, but would it not be better to do it at an active management level, working alongside and supporting Departments as much as possible? A lot of Departments do…”

“Given that not everyone has experience in this area, do you think that people understand where there are issues and where there could be wastage? For instance, we talk about legacy systems at a lot of our hearings. To me, it feels a bit of a mire—a bit of a jungle. There seems to be a lack of ownership, and people do n…”

“On a more granular level, the NAO Report gives examples of techniques like job costing, process costing and activity-based costing. These are things that are happening in the private sector. Are they things that could be passported over?”

“It seems like common sense to me. I am not a financial expert. Why has this not happened before?”

“You are confident that examples like the one I have just given can be avoided in the future by taking this approach.”

“How do you make sure that future users are not unfairly affected when recovering deposits?”

“They do not want a big shock.”

“They understand that there is a cost, but is about fairness, is it not?”

“How often is that? Is that a year or two years in advance?”

“The good intentions are there and, if they are actively managed, that is fine, but good intentions can go awry, can they not? If things look like they are not going the way they should be and costs are not being recouped, for instance, is that where the active management comes in?”

“They have changed their fees to meet the deficit.”

“You are across the detail, I suppose.”

“We are not talking small figures here. The figure I just quoted was £223 million.”

“I suppose this is where improved monitoring come in.”

“James, how will the Treasury help Government bodies manage the persistent deficits and surpluses more proactively in the future? You said you are aware of these things.”

“Tim and Farhad, how likely is it to affect you?”

“You are confident that that sharing will happen. I know that sometimes there are issues with sharing best practice.”

“What does “actively manage” mean?”

“There is an impact. Getting this right is crucial, then.”