The Government’s value for money advice unit is “understaffed” and “poorly defined”, according to the head of a cross-party group of MPs.
The Office for Value For Money has been described as “something of a red herring” by Dame Meg Hillier, the chairwoman of the Treasury Committee, with a “vague remit” and “no clear plan to measure its effectiveness”.
She made the comments as she launched a new committee report into the organisation which found it was “lightly resourced” with a “very short period of time to drive tangible improvements”.
According to the gov.uk website, the office is a “time-limited unit” within the Treasury that “provides advice to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Chief Secretary to the Treasury to ensure that value for money is at the heart of the Government’s spending decisions”.
Dame Meg Hillier, the chairwoman of the Treasury Committee, said the office had ‘a vague remit’ (PA)
Plans for the body were first announced by Labour in 2021, before David Goldstone – a non-executive director at HS2 Ltd – was appointed as chairman at last year’s Budget, paid a day rate of £950.
The report from the committee raised concerns over resources with the office having 12 members of full-time staff in December 2024, as well as the risk of duplication with other government bodies who have their own procedures for determining value for money.
The committee said the office should “explain how it will interact” with other public bodies that are already tasked with being good value for money “to avoid unnecessary duplication and to utilise existing expertise”.
The report concluded: “The Office for Value for Money’s task is challenging because it is lightly resourced, and it has only a very short period of time to drive tangible improvements in efficiency in departments’ spending during the Spending Review period.
“Its worth will depend on its ability to identify and to deliver meaningful, original new ways of securing value for money in public spending.”
Labour MP Dame Meg said that the committee was of the view that the body “is an understaffed, poorly defined organisation which has been set up with a vague remit and no clear plan to measure its effectiveness. All of which leads me to feel this initiative may be something of a red herring”.
She said the Treasury needs to “share far more information about what this small team will actually achieve for the taxpayer which cannot be done elsewhere” as well as be “transparent about how it will operate”.
A Treasury spokesperson said: “For too long, taxpayer money has been squandered and we are putting an end to it.
“This Office’s role is additional to existing parts of government and will draw on a range of expertise across disciplines to help root out waste, including a focus on where department spending may be overlapping.
“They also sit alongside our wider spending review which is, for the first time in 17 years, reviewing every line of government spending.”