Thirty-first report of Session 2005-06 : Documents considered by the Committee on 14 June 2006, including: A citizens agenda - delivering results for Europe; Preliminary draft budget 2007, report, together with formal Minutes

Thirty-first report of Session 2010-12 : Documents considered by the Committee on 24 May 2011, report, together with formal Minutes

Following on from a NAO report (HCP 798, session 2005-06, ISBN 0102936978) published in February 2006, the Committee's report concludes that the handling of cases in magistrates' courts has in recent years become complex and protracted to the extent that it no longer amounts to summary justice. 55 per cent of the £173 million cost of delay in the magistrates' courts is attributable to the defence, but the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) account for another 14 per cent (£24 million) each. The CPS needs to review its organisational structure, revise its system for preparing for magistrates' court cases by adopting current best practice, and address the cultural resistance within the organisation to more modern working practices.

Thirty-fourth report of Session 2005-06 : Documents considered by the Committee on 5 July 2006, including, voluntary reduction ( modulation ) of direct farm support payments, report, together with formal Minutes

Everyday the NHS successfully treats over 1 million people. However there are risks and treatments can go wrong. A report by the Chief Medical Officer in 2000, ('An organisation with a memory', ISBN 0113224419) estimated that one in ten patients admitted to hospital were unintentionally harmed and that a blame culture and lack of a national system for sharing experience were key barriers to reducing the number of patient safety incidents. In Government's response included plans, timetables and targets to promote patient safety and the establishment of the National Patient Safety Agency. This report finds that insufficient progress has been made. In particular there is a question mark over the National Patient Safety Agency because of cost over-runs and delays in its National Reporting and Learning System and the limited feedback it has so far provided to trusts.

In June 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority announced that it would be terminating the Connex South Eastern franchise for passenger rail services in Kent, parts of Sussex and South East London; the first, and so far only, instance where a train operating company's franchise has been terminated early. Following on from a National Audit Office report (HCP 457, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936498) published in December 2005, the Committee's report examines why the franchise experienced difficulties; why the contract was terminated, and the impact on the interests of the taxpayer. The report sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations on the lessons to be learned in order to reduce the risk of future franchise failures.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (the Department) provides a wide range of consular services from over 200 Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates ("Posts") worldwide. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (HC 594, session 2005-06, ISBN 010293617X), the Committee examined three main issues: their progress in influencing British nationals travelling overseas; developing consular services as a responsive service; and reacting to consular crises. The Department has made some significant innovations, such as working with operators like EasyJet and publishing the Rough Guide to Safer Travel, to increase its influence on those travelling overseas. But consular staff are increasingly called to help the irresponsible minority whose problems may have been avoided by greater awareness and planning before travelling, or by sensible behaviour once abroad. The Department used its existing powers to charge for consular services in just 323 out of 84,000 assistance cases. In 2001, the Department procured a casework management system at a cost to date of £3.3 million, but this has not been successfully embedded across the organisation, and has not produced the management information the Department needs to manage its consular business effectively. Issuing passports at over 100 Posts is inefficient and exposes the Department to increasing risks from fraudulent applications. The Department has improved its crisis management capabilities since 2001, although there has been slow progress in updating and testing emergency plans at Posts. The Indian Ocean Tsunami presented an extreme challenge for consular services; their call centres were overwhelmed and they were unable to assist British nationals as quickly as they would have wished.

Strokes are one of the top three causes of death in England and a leading cause of adult disability. There are 110,000 strokes each year in England, with a quarter occurring to people under 65 years. Some 300,000 people in England are living with moderate to severe disabilities as a result of a stroke. As the NAO report on this subject pointed out (HCP 452, session 05/06 NAO ISBN 010293570X), it costs the economy in total about £7 billion a year, with the direct cost to the NHS about £2.8 billion. This Committee of Public Accounts report takes evidence from the Department of Health and sets out a number of recommendations. The cost of stroke, in both economic and human terms, could be reduced by re-organizing existing services more effectively. Brain scans of many stroke patients are being delayed, everyone who suffers a stroke should be scanned as soon as possible after arrival in hospital, and should not wait more than 24 hours. Stroke patients should spend longer in hospital on a stroke unit, this could reduce the number of deaths. There needs to be an increase in the number of consultants who have training in dealing with strokes, as well as therapists and other specialist staff with expertise in stroke care across the primary and secondary healthcare sectors. The Department of Health should improve provision of information to stroke survivors and carers, so they are made more aware of the support services available. The Department should run an awareness campaign to improve public knowledge about strokes

The prison population in England and Wales has been increasing since the 1990s and by November 2005 it reached a record level of 77,800, resulting in increased levels of overcrowding and stretched resources. Following on from a NAO report (HC 458, session 2005-06 (ISBN 0102935696) published in October 2005, the Committee's report examines how the Home Office, the Prison Service and the National Offender Management Service (which has responsibility for managing and accommodating prisoners) are dealing with the challenges involved in accommodating this record number of prisoners, the construction and use of temporary accommodation and the impact on the delivery of education and other training for prisoners. The Committee makes a number of conclusions and recommendations including in relation to: the deportation of foreign nationals, the use of alternatives to remand such as electronic tagging, contingency planning to ensure greater flexibility in accommodation plans including pilot testing new accommodation to identify possible problems early on, the application of best practice in anti-suicide monitoring measures, and the impact of moving prisoners around the prison estate on their training needs.

Following on from the NAO report (HCP 595-I, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936250) published in November 2005, the Committee's report examines the recommendations made to improve the MoD's procurement of defence equipment focusing on time, cost and performance data for 30 defence projects in the year ended March 2005. This covers the 20 largest projects where the main investment decision has been taken and the 10 largest projects still in the assessment stage. The Committee's report focuses on three main issues: options for enhancing programme and project management of defence acquisition; the impact of older projects on overall acquisition performance; and value for money from the Defence Industrial Strategy. Findings include: i) the MoD has reduced the forecast costs of its top 19 projects by some £700 million, but these cuts were needed to bring the Defence Equipment Plan under control rather than the result of better project management; ii) some of the latest capability cuts are short-term expediencies which may result in an erosion of core defence capability or in higher costs throughout the life of individual projects; and iii) despite previous assurances that it had restructured many of its older projects to address past failures, the MoD still attributes much of its historic poor performance to so called "toxic legacy" projects which continue to accumulate considerable time and cost overruns, and it is now time that such projects were put on a firm footing with realistic performance, time and cost estimates against which the MoD and industry can be judged.