What was your highlight of 2024?
In January, I gave my annual speech on the themes emerging from the NAO’s work, focusing in 2024 on the biggest opportunities for getting more from the resources available to government. It was encouraging to see the constructive cross-party response at the time and since, with references in both 2024 Budgets, March and October. I’m proud of my teams’ work during the year building on the themes in the speech to expand our range of lessons learned reports and good practice guides. We used the speech as the basis for a short publication Making public money work harder, which distils our key insights and is aimed at both the new Parliament and new government.
What was the hardest part of being a leader in 2024?
2024 offered modest respite from the sequence of crises of recent years, all of which have affected the NAO’s work in significant ways. So, the biggest challenge was the more familiar one to all public service leaders: achieving the high-performance standards expected of us within the resources available and helping our colleagues navigate the inevitable operational challenges. In our case, this year’s curveball was the timing of the General Election squarely in our busiest season for auditing government accounts.
What are the main challenges facing your organisation in the coming year – and how are you planning to meet them?
Firstly, getting off to a strong start with our ambitious new five-year strategy. We have been busy developing this and consulting with others for feedback and we look forward to launching it early in 2025. Secondly, with our remit to support parliamentary scrutiny we will continue to get to know the 335 new MPs elected in July and build effective working relationships with new select committee chairs and members. Finally, ensuring that we continue to manage ourselves well, so that the demands on our brilliant colleagues are energising rather than overwhelming.
What was the best Christmas present you’ve ever given or received?
Leaving aside every single Christmas present from my wife which obviously top the list, the next best was Christmas 1980, unwrapping the album Permanent Waves by Rush. A lifelong passion ensued, much to the discombobulation of everyone else in hearing range. The gift from me that comes to mind was the one and only poem I’ve ever written, which aimed to reassure my then four-year-old daughter that Santa would not be fazed by her moving house between Christmases.
And the worst?
Probably the poem.