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Written question asked by James Paice (Conservative) on Friday, 10 October 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 14 October 2014. It was answered by Kris Hopkins (Conservative) on Friday, 17 October 2014 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Local Government: Procurement

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of audit trails in local government expenditure spending; and what estimate he has made of the incidence of accidental duplicate payments to local government suppliers in each of the last five years.

Answer

Whilst we do not centrally hold detailed information on local authorities’ duplicate payments, in my Department's publication “50 ways to save”, we observed that councils could save money by conducting audits of potential duplicate payments and reforming accounts payable processes.

This was based on research by Experian of both local and central government bodies, suggesting duplicate payments could cost taxpayers up to £147 million a year.

As stated in my answer of 3 September 2014, Official Report, Column 265W, my own Department has put this best practice into action and delivered savings of £100,000 by recovering duplicate payments made since 2006.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
209935
Session
2014-15
Subjects
Local government Procurement
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk