The National Audit Office (NAO) scrutinises public spending for Parliament, helping Parliament hold government to account and improve public services.

As well as auditing the financial statements of all central government departments, agencies and other public bodies, the NAO carries our value-for-money (VFM) studies and investigations.  This work  aims at helping government improve public services.

An important part of its quality assurance arrangements for VFM work, is independent external evaluations of their value for money reports and investigations.  Since 2009 Risk Solutions have been one of the teams that provide this external scrutiny. 

We review a sample of the reports each year to assess how well they address:

• The scope and administrative and managerial context
• Financial, quantitative and qualitative analysis
• The structure and presentation
• The use of graphics and statistics
• Appropriateness and use of methods
• Synthesis of conclusion and  recommendations (where made)
• Treatment of systemic issues, and
• Overall quality as a report to Parliament.

We meet with NAO periodically to discuss our findings and share experiences. 

This works helps keep us abreast of the issues public bodies face in providing value-for-money to the public and evaluating their progress.