The Treasury and Work and Pensions Committees demand Motability governors “stop making excuses” and provide full evidence to the committees and obey the NAO’s calls for financial management reforms.
Commons select committee website
Letter to committee from Motability Director Paul Atkinson
The National Audit Office (NAO) report last year on the Motability scheme found that although it provided an excellent service to customers, but has long operated in a protected environment, supported by government, which has made maintaining high performance less challenging. It also questioned the need for Motability to have £2.62 billion in reserves.
A joint report by the committees last year also recognised the importance of the Motability scheme in enabling disabled people to become more independent but raised important questions about the finance and governance of the scheme.
Motability Operations now has serious questions to answer about the information they provided to Parliament. With £2.62 billion in reserves and the cutting of executive rewards long overdue, there is now huge scope to improve the lives of hosts of disabled claimants without asking taxpayers for a penny more.” The Chief Executive has since announced he will stand down next year.
The latest evidence suggests Motability is still not taking the NAO or the committees seriously. The governors of Motability failed to provide full details of the recommendations of their internal governance review, attempting instead to hide behind “commercial sensitivity”.
The NAO has confirmed no such exemption applies to those recommendations and the committees have instructed Motability to provide the full unredacted information.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd echoes these concerns, stating that the NAO, the two committees and the Charity Commission have given the Government a “clear understanding of how the scheme operates today …and the steps Motability need to take …we will ask them to be transparent in implementing the NAO’s recommendations and in assisting your committees.”
Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:
“We are clear, the NAO is clear, the Government is clear: Motability must step up, now, and demonstrate the transparency and accountability befitting an organisation that enjoys huge amounts of taxpayer’s support. Stop making excuses, start channelling all your vast resources into what Motability does best: giving freedom and mobility to so many disabled people.”