Accountability for projects is clearer but could be undermined by turnover of senior responsible owners

3.15  There is now clearer accountability to Parliament following the Cabinet Office's revision of guidance (the Osmotherly rules) in October 2014. This means senior responsible owners for major projects are expected to appear before select committees to account for their decisions and actions on projects for which they have personal responsibility. In addition, former accounting officers can now be called to give evidence about their previous responsibilities within a reasonable time period.

3.16  Departments have issued revised appointment letters to senior responsible owners to reflect this. We found that senior responsible owners have largely received the new responsibilities positively and welcomed clarification of the role. HM Revenue & Customs told us that they considered the change meant senior responsible owners needed to be more senior, and were therefore likely to be responsible for several projects.

3.17  However, we are concerned that this increased clarity is reduced by turnover of senior responsible owners. It is not normal practice for them to be responsible for a project from beginning to end. Our analysis of senior responsible owners' turnover for the 73 projects that have remained in the Portfolio shows that only 4 projects (5%) have had a single senior responsible owner responsible for the project over a 4-year period (Figure 12). Some 56% of projects have had at least 2 changes in senior responsible owner.

3.18  The Committee of Public Accounts has raised concerns about senior responsible owners having responsibility for several projects (paragraph 1.6). In June 2015, we found that while most senior responsible owners (84%) are responsible for a single project in the Portfolio, a small number (16%) are still responsible for 2 or more projects. This was mainly in the Ministry of Defence where, given the large numbers of defence projects in the Portfolio, it was not unusual for senior responsible owners to have more than one project in the Portfolio. The Authority told us that in some cases the senior responsible owner has programme responsibility for 2 or more related projects in the Portfolio.