The financial oversight body of Parliament has urged HM Treasury to enhance the monitoring of government debt management. Additionally, it has raised concerns about a potential loss of crucial skills within a key aspect of the borrowing process.
The Public Accounts Committee said the Treasury has no directly-measurable success criteria to assess whether its objective to "minimise, over the long term, the costs of meeting the government’s financing needs, taking into account risk, while ensuring that debt management policy is consistent with the aims of monetary policy” is being met.
A just-published report from the committee says the objective is "high-level and difficult to quantify" and that the lack of assessment criteria makes it "impossible to know" whether value for money is being secured from the government's approach.
The report highlights that government borrowing overseen by the Debt Management Office has surged from approximately £300 billion in 2003 to £2.5 trillion last year. This increase has been driven by the global financial crisis of 2007-08 and the subsequent response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, it raises concerns about the impending retirement of DMO chief executive Sir Robert Stheeman this summer, who has served in the position for 20 years. Additionally, it notes that other senior staff members at the HM Treasury executive agency are nearing retirement age.