Select committee calls on Whitehall to address barriers to effective cross-government working

Delivery of Government programmes is hampered by lack of co-ordination across Whitehall with departments operating in silos, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found.

The PAC said in a report Cross-government Working that effective working across government “must become more than just a ‘nice to have”’.

It urged both HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to take a firm grip on improving cross-government working, and to learn from the barriers that prevent it.

The report said it was fundamental to successful delivery of much government policy that different parts of Whitehall should work together.

But the PAC “regularly sees important programmes hindered by difficulties”.

Evidence taken during its inquiry showed common barriers included: structures and bureaucracy getting in the way of planning and delivery; poorly-understood ministerial priorities; inconsistent join-up in spending decisions and allocations; a lack of routine data-sharing between departments; poor arrangements for sharing best practice and learning.

MPs on the committee said many of the cross-government projects they examine “are hindered by missing or inadequate data”, including some in the criminal justice system and the tracking of net zero investment.

The PAC said it had “reported time and time again on the impact of poor IT, with extreme complexity and inconsistency a feature of data systems across government”.

Difficulties with data sharing, due to technical issues or departmental unwillingness, had been identified by the Government as the main barrier to cross-government working, it noted.

Cross-cutting outcomes including net zero, health and social care, and levelling up were inconsistently reported on by Government, and the PAC said the Cabinet Office should more clearly publish progress made against these policies.

Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the committee, said: “So many important Government projects are dependent on Whitehall working in harmony with itself.

“Yet so often difficulties with cross-government working are precisely what is hindering these projects and the benefits for citizens. While departments are rightly focused on their own policy areas, complex societal issues cannot be solved in departmental silos.”

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring departments are aligned and supported in order to deliver major policies cutting across government.

“This includes making sure there is more effective collaboration such as, through better data evaluation through working closely with the Evaluation Taskforce, improving join-up in spending decisions so departments share the risks and the benefits to achieve better value for money, and transforming the back office across government with departments working together in the Shared Services centres. 

“We have also made £600m available since 2019 to incentivise departments to work collaboratively across challenging policy areas.”

Mark Smulian