How does Govt set the fees it charges? - PAC investigates
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will hold the first of two evidence sessions examining Government services: Identifying costs and generating incomeat 10.00am on Thursday 16 October.
Meeting details
To recover the cost of providing certain services, such as administering a driving licences or passports, the Government charges fees. The guidance set out by HM Treasury states that these charges should recover the full cost of providing services in order to avoid cross-subsidies between services or over-charging users.
However, a recent report by the NAO found that over the past five years, none of the services examined had met their cost recovery targets. In 2022-23 this amounted to a shortfall of £340 million, leaving future users at risk of having to overpay for services if fees are inflated to plug the gap.
MPs will question witnesses including the Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury and the Chief Executive of the DVLA about the key challenges faced by the Government in achieving value for money when providing services. The session is also likely to explore the role of the Treasury in overseeing how fees and charges are set and managed and ask what practical improvements could be made to the process.