Financial impacts statement

The following pages list the financial impacts directly attributable to our work.

Types of impacts

Impacts must be one of the following four types:

1  Cashable reduction in net expenditure

2  Cashable increase in net income

3  Non-cashable: leading to improvements in public sector efficiency through improved quality or service delivery

4  Represent benefits to third parties.

The impacts are calculated on the following five principles:

1  Causation - There must be a causal link between work conducted by the NAO and the benefit.

2  Realisation - Impacts must have been realised within, or before, the calendar year in which they are reported. There can be a time-delay between NAO's recommendations and recording of the impact achieved.

3  Valuation - The calculation is based on reliable evidence or data and a robust methodology.

4  Attribution - The proportion of impact claimed reflects the degree of the NAO's contribution to the benefit realised. The impact of our recommendations is not always separable from other influences and we exercise careful judgement in attributing a percentage of the impacts to our work. See the case study as an example of how the percentage is calculated.

5  Validation - Impacts are agreed with the relevant body we audit, are subject to our internal quality assurance processes and are audited independently as part of our Annual Report and Accounts.