Restoration & Renewal of Parliament comes under scrutiny of Public Accounts Committee
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will scrutinise the Restoration and Renewal of Parliament (R&R) in a session with senior responsible officials, with a preceding separate panel exploring insights from the work of the National Audit Office (NAO).
Meeting details
The first panel will explore insights from the NAO’s audit work with senior Treasury officials, as well as the Environment Agency (EA) as a good practice example. The EA strengthened its asset management approach in response to previous audits, achieving its first clear audit opinion for six years in 2024-25.
The Committee will then move to its second panel on R&R at 11.00. Engineers concluded 26 years ago that a significant amount of services plant and equipment needed replacing in the Palace within 5-10 years, with ongoing maintenance deemed uneconomic. In 2023, the PAC warned of a real and rising risk that the Palace of Westminster would be destroyed by a catastrophic event before it is restored.
The R&R Client Board published its costed proposals in February, with estimates ranging from £11.1bn to £56.3bn with a full duration of works ranging from 19 to 84 years, depending how far the Commons and Lords choose to remain on-site during the works. Later this year, both Houses will be asked to agree a motion on the way forward.
Ahead of the vote, the PAC will scrutinise the options paper with officials, with a view to collecting evidence to inform the choice of members of both Houses. The session will likely see discussion of the overall proposed approach for R&R, which has recommended the House vote this year to start preparatory work with whether Parliament leaves during delivery or not to be decided in the next Parliament.
Other likely topics include the accuracy of cost estimates and how to ensure R&R stays on budget and on schedule, as well as an assessment of the current MP-led governance approach.