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<p>In response to the governance issues raised in reports by the Public Accounts Committee
and the National Audit Office, DCMS, together with the NCS Trust, have made the following
progress:</p><p> </p><ul><li>The NCS Trust transitioned from a Community Interest
Company to a Royal Charter body (RCB), in accordance with the NCS Act, on 01 December
2018. This made the NCS Trust an Arm’s Length Body (ALB) of DCMS. The ALB relationship
means that the NCS Trust have a higher level of accountability to Parliament and the
taxpayer, and ensures that Government have the power to appropriately scrutinise the
NCS Trust as they see fit.</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>As a Government ALB, the NCS Trust
is now subject to the following Government scrutiny: the <strong>National Audit Office
(NAO)</strong> audits the NCS annual report and accounts; NAO submit all accounts
to the <strong>Committee of Public Accounts (PAC); </strong>The <strong>NCS Act</strong>
requires the NCS Trust to lay Ministerially-approved annual business plans, annual
reports and accounts in Parliament; The <strong>NCS Royal Charter</strong> states
that a <strong>representative of the Government</strong> must sit on the NCS Trust’s
Remuneration and Audit and Risk committees; The NCS Trust is subject to all <strong>Cabinet
Office Spend Controls</strong></li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>As a Government ALB, the NCS
Trust must abide by all principles laid out in <strong>HMT’s Managing Public Money</strong>
document.</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>As the Sponsor Department, DCMS exercises its governance
scrutiny over the NCS Trust through: bi-annual Sponsor meetings between the DCMS Permanent
Secretary, as Principal Accounting Officer, and the NCS Trust CEO and Board Chair;
a high level of Senior Civil Servant involvement in the NCS Trust’s activities, including
regular meetings between NCS Trust and DCMS Senior Sponsor and Sponsor Director; and
through specialist-level meetings with officials from across DCMS.</li></ul>
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