Business Plans: track progress in implementing our policies
You can use this site to track the Government's progress in implementing the reforms set out in the 2012-15 Business Plans.
The graphs provide an overview of implementation progress across the full set of reform actions. A selection of recently completed and soon to be completed actions give a flavour of what the Government is working on at the moment.
Click on a department to see all its 2012 Business Plan commitments, and their current status.
- Cabinet Office
- Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
- Department for Communities and Local Government
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport
- Department for Education
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Department for International Development
- Department for Transport
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Department of Energy and Climate Change
- Department of Health
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
- Her Majesty's Treasury
- Home Office
- Ministry of Defence
- Ministry of Justice
Current status of actions
Actions completed on time
Actions completed last month
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Cabinet Office 1.12.iii Cut bureaucracy by carrying out a one-off internal 'red tape challenge' exercise to get rid of unnecessary data requirements that have accumulated over time |
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Cabinet Office 1.12.i Seek to establish a common set of robust, timely and consistent management information that enables senior officials and ministers to make comparisons of operational performance across government so that departments and individuals can be held to account |
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Cabinet Office 1.5.iii Develop, working with the Office of the Public Guardian, a series of digital prototypes to replace aspects of its business that are currently entirely paper-based, including a “beta” (prototype) version of the “Lasting Power of Attorney” process |
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Cabinet Office 5.1.iv Ensure the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission is fully operational |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 3.5.iii Conditional offers announced for successful Regional Growth Fund Round 3 bids |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 3.7.ii Publish a progress report on implementation of Breedon Review |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.2.i Publish the Government response to the flexible working and shared parental leave elements of the Modern Workplaces consultation |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.3.iv Publish a summary of findings from the Workplace Rights, Compliance and Enforcement Review (WRCER) and consult on key areas for change, including reforming regulation of the recruitment sector |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.10.i Publication of independent review |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 1.1.v Achieve Royal Assent to Local Government Finance Bill to implement rates retention, Tax Increment Financing and localisation of Council Tax support |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 1.4.iii Develop and put in place a way of measuring the wider impact on families, beyond the results element of the Payment by Results, including health, family functioning and costs for the state |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 5.1.vi Announce outcome of review of planning guidance, in concert with the sector |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 2.6.i Support local authorities to retain and reinstate weekly rubbish collection and encourage reward schemes to boost recycling, including providing up to £250 million of central funding |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 4.4.i Publish details of the support we can provide to locally-led, locally-planned large scale developments and details of how to access it |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 3.10.iii Promote growth through an open and transparent internet where legitimate business can thrive and consumers and citizens enjoy a high level of confidence and security. Key milestones: IGF, Prague, June 2012; Budapest Cyber Conference, Nov 2012. |
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Department for Education 1.5.i First alternative provision free schools to open and first Pupil Referral Units convert to Academies |
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Department for Education 6.1.iii Publish independent interim evaluation of pathfinders with initial recommendations on single assessment and plan |
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Department for Education 6.5.i Legally establish and appoint a Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission |
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1.3.iii Report on progress made towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and opportunities for further action |
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1.6.ii Implement pilot approaches to incentivising fishermen to reduce discards, in which all catches of key species must be landed and counted against quota |
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Department for Transport 2.1.iii Set out next steps on rail decentralisation, following consultation |
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Department for Transport 3.1.ii Deliver new framework for devolving decisions on local major transport schemes to local areas, announced in January 2012 |
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Department for Work and Pensions 2.1.i Publish first set of Work Programme 12 month outcome Business Plan indicator statistics |
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Department for Work and Pensions 3.2.i Introduce Jobseeker’s Allowance for lone parents whose youngest child is 5 or over |
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Department for Work and Pensions 3.7.i Establish a Child Poverty and Social Mobility Commission |
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Department for Work and Pensions 4.3.i Develop and publish paper for wider public discussion |
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Department of Energy and Climate Change 1.1.vii Produce, with Defra, advice for households living in rural areas on improving home energy efficiency and reducing energy costs |
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Department of Energy and Climate Change 1.2.i Amend energy suppliers' licenses to require them to complete the roll-out by 2019, and to facilitate early developments |
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Department of Energy and Climate Change 1.5.i Publish green paper on the energy efficiency potential in the economy and objectives for further energy efficiency deployment |
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Department of Energy and Climate Change 2.1.i Introduce primary legislation to reform the electricity market |
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Department of Health 1.3.ii Release first data on proportion of patients with greater control of their care records |
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Department of Health 1.4.ii Publish final evaluation report of personal health budget pilot programme |
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Department of Health 1.4.iii Initiate national roll out of personal budgets for chronic/long term conditions, informed by the results of the evaluation of pilots [Open Public Services] |
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Department of Health 1.6.ii Improve the performance and capability of the CQC with regard to regulation and inspecting quality by strengthening its Board and accountability arrangements |
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Department of Health 2.3.i Provide 6 month progress report to the Prime Minister on the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia |
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Department of Health 2.3.v Report progress on the number of national organisations that have pledged to look at how they can play a part in creating a more dementia friendly society and raise awareness of dementia |
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Her Majesty's Treasury 2.10.v Support BIS’s work on implementing the industry-led Taskforce on non-bank lending |
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Her Majesty's Treasury 2.10.vi Support BIS’s work on the advisory group for access to finance in capital markets / SME bonds |
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Home Office 1.1.i Prepare for elections of Police and Crime Commissioners working with the Electoral Commission, including introduction of any secondary legislation required |
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Home Office 1.1.ii Hold elections of Police and Crime Commissioners |
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Home Office 1.1.iii Ensure devolution issues in London and Wales are properly taken account of ahead of the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners |
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Home Office 1.1.iv Establish effective checks and balances for Police and Crime Commissioners through Police and Crime Panels and public transparency, including introduction of the secondary legislation required |
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Home Office 2.1.iii Issue a revised Code of Practice on Arrest to encourage police officers to consider whether an arrest is necessary in cases where somebody claims to have acted in self defence. This will provide people with greater protection to prevent crime, apprehend criminals and to defend themselves against intruders |
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Home Office 2.3.v Build the capacity and capability and knowledge of the Police Service in transformational change, to support the development of local plans which maintain or improve services to the public whilst budgets reduce, working with the multi-agency Policing Value for Money Unit, ahead of the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary will continue to develop and pursue their priority inspection programme around development and delivery of forces’ plans and will also consider progress routinely through their ongoing risk-based monitoring of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Service. |
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Home Office 6.4.ii Promote safe and secure travel to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Ensure legal entry of all affiliated London Olympic associates, athletes, workers and visitors and efficient passage into the UK through border controls, while maintaining border security |
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Home Office 5.2.i Implement the legislative changes on pre-charge detention, stop and search powers and local authority use of the surveillance powers in the Protection of Freedoms Act |
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Ministry of Defence 1.2.i Deliver A400M Steering Committee annual review |
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Ministry of Defence 1.3.ii Identify UK commitment to new NATO Command Structure |
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Ministry of Justice 1.1.v Publish first Doncaster process evaluation |
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Ministry of Justice 2.1.iii Develop a cross-CJS framework for restorative justice approaches |
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Ministry of Justice 3.7.iii Implement Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme reforms and Victims of Terrorism legislation, subject to the outcome of the consultation |
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Ministry of Justice 4.5.iii Publish response to Post Legislative Scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act |
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Ministry of Justice 5.1.viii Announce award of contracts for Prisons Competition Phase 2 |
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Ministry of Justice 5.2.i Assess the progress of the Transforming Justice programme currently underway |
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Ministry of Justice 5.2.iii Sign off next phase of Transforming Justice programme |
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Ministry of Justice 4.10.i Implement a new criminal offence of squatting in residential buildings, working with other government departments, local authorities, enforcement agencies and local homelessness services |
Actions to be completed this month
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Cabinet Office 1.2.ii Publish the report of the Independent Review of barriers to choice |
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Cabinet Office 1.5.i Establish a consistent set of cross-government metrics for digital service delivery, and publish the cost per transaction of high value services to enable continuous monitoring and improvement of service |
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Cabinet Office 1.5.ii Provide a “beta” (prototype) version of a digital first service to allow citizens to register online to vote in elections |
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Cabinet Office 1.10.i Working in conjunction with the National Fraud Authority, outline the design of a counter-fraud checking service by summer 2012, as the first step towards delivering an Intelligence Sharing Architecture |
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Cabinet Office 2.2.i Amend Freedom of Information Code of Practice as required by new legislation to extend the “right to data” to public authorities |
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Cabinet Office 4.3.i Provide up to 30,000 places in the second pilot year of the National Citizen Service |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 1.3.i Prepare and run a pilot of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) submissions system |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 3.5.iv Quarterly progress updates on successful projects that have signed final contracts |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 3.6.ii Deliver the access to finance elements of the Business in You campaign, in particular publicising the Finance Finder tool |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 3.9.ii Recruit and train 15,000 mentors (5,000 funded by Government Equalities Office) to provide additional mentoring capacity for SMEs |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 4.2.i Liberalise European markets for business services by working with EU partners to deliver achieve an ambitious outcome for the European Commission's blueprint to improve trade in the EU (called "Single Market") |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 4.2.ii. Make it easier to sell goods and services online in the EU |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 4.2.iii Make trade in Europe work better through improving transparency, dispute resolution and enforcement for UK companies selling their products in major EU markets |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.1.i Introduce a Bill to reform the competition framework |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.1.ii Push the EU for a digital single market to overcome barriers to e-commerce and the electronic distribution of goods to Europe, by enhancing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for businesses and their customers |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.4.vi Deliver a Government response to the Graeme Nuttall Review on employee share ownership |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.4.ix Issue the Government response to John Kay’s review of UK equity markets and long term decision making |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.7.i Produce a progress report on consumer empowerment which sets out key achievements and milestones for the year ahead and further develop the evidence base to ensure focus on measures with the greatest likely impact |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.13.i Monitor Departments’ progress in ending gold-plating, including using copy-out, getting right timing, applying review clauses, aligning EU obligations with domestic policy and using alternatives to regulation |
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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.13.ii Work with EU institutions to embed smart regulation, contributing to Commission report on overall burden reductions and exemption of micro-businesses. Including areas for possible micro-business exemption or lighter regime identified through Red Tape Challenge |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 5.4.ii First local authorities publish data on their spending on infrastructure via the Community Infrastructure Levy |
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Department for Communities and Local Government 4.1.iii Bring two land auction pilot sites to the market |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 3.6.i Scope and analyse the potential impact of transition |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 3.8.i Lay secondary legislation, detailing how the Digital Economy Act’s provisions to protect copyright material online will work |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 4.3.ii Work with Arts Council England and other relevant Government departments to publish guidance for library authorities on the principles they should consider when designing and transferring library services into community management |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 3.8.iv Review effectiveness of Creative Industries Council |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 3.10.ii Negotiate a revision of the International Telecommunications Regulations at the World Conference on International Telecommunications |
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Department for Culture, Media and Sport 5.3.i Procure supplier to install mobile infrastructure |
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Department for Education 6.4.iii Publish a progress report on the impact of “Positive for Youth” actions such as setting up forums to scrutinise national policy, Youth Contract bidding, and focusing on young people’s health indicators |
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Department for Education 1.1.ii Convert the worst underperforming primary schools to Academy status |
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Department for Education 4.3.ii Appoint a Chief Social Worker |
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Department for Education 6.3.iv Publish proposals for wider reform of the children in care system, including improvements to the fostering system, to support the social work workforce and the quality of commissioning |
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Department for Education 6.6.ii Take forward the actions from the Bailey review on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, including age-rating of music videos (working with DCMS); work with the Advertising and Standards Agency on public space advertising; agreement with magazine publishers, wholesalers and retailers on the display of magazines with sexualised cover images; continue to work with industry at all levels (including retailers and fast-food outlets) to extend 'active choice' protection on all home internet connections (for existing and new customers), mobile devices, desktops, internet TVs, and public wifi networks |
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Department for Education 6.6.iii Take stock of progress against the recommendations in the Bailey Review and , where insufficient progress has been made, consider taking the most effective action available, including regulating through legislation if there is a good case to do so |
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1.1.iii Report on progress towards implementing the Macdonald Task Force recommendations |
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2.3.i Analyse the formal advice on Marine Conservation Zones provided by the statutory nature conservation bodies |
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 3.2.iv Publish the first Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat, setting out the outcomes Government expects to be delivered through economic regulation of the water sector |
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 3.11.ii Complete two rounds of bids and award first grants from the Rural Community Broadband Fund |
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Department for International Development 2.4.iii Complete participatory assessments with recipients of cash transfers in five countries to provide evidence on cash transfer programme design, implementation and impact |
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Department for International Development 3.4.ii Provide funding to research consortia to develop two new technologies (drugs and diagnostics) for malaria and neglected tropical diseases |
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Department for International Development 5.1.iv Launch the Girls Education Challenge, available to the charitable and private sectors, to put up to one million more of the world’s poorest girls in school by 2015 |
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Department for International Development 5.1.v Establish a research and innovation fund to build the evidence and test out new approaches in ten priority countries on the most effective ways of preventing violence against girls and women |
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Department for Transport 1.2.i Respond to HS2 Ltd’s proposals on design options for Leeds, Manchester and Heathrow routes and stations by publishing the Government’s initial preferred options |
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Department for Transport 4.1.i Implement measures, including the use of innovative laser scanning equipment, to reduce the congestion and costs associated with motorway closures following incidents |
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Department for Transport 4.2.ii Develop and publish a national roads strategy for consultation, setting out our long-term vision and goals for our strategic roads |
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Department for Transport 4.2.iii Carry out a feasibility study into new ownership and financing models for the national road network |
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Department for Transport 4.4.i Work with the Home Office to support their work to authorise the use of drug screening technology in police stations |
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Department for Transport 7.1.i Publish a transport strategy |
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Department for Work and Pensions 5.3.i Run Right to Control pilots |
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Department for Work and Pensions 6.1.i Put benefit advice and common benefits enquiries online |
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Department of Energy and Climate Change 3.2.i Implement a programme for spending UK climate finance to reduce emissions from deforestation |
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Department of Energy and Climate Change 3.2.ii Work through UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations to make progress towards a global deal on reducing emissions and the provision of climate finance |
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Department of Health 2.9.iv Support commissioners in understanding the variation of services provided in their areas by annually updated the NHS Atlas of variation |
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Department of Health 2.10.iii Commission the NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement to deliver targeted support of trusts that will benefit from implementation |
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Department of Health 5.1.ii Develop an implementation plan for the full range of policy proposals set out in the Care and Support White Paper, working across Government and with the wider care and support sector to take forward and deliver the reforms. |
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1.2.ii Support the Afghan Parliament to engage more actively in the political process through exchanges between UK and Afghan MPs and formal capacity building training to increase Parliament’s effectiveness |
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2.2.i Deliver Ministerial visits to China, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, United States, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria and Realm and Diamond Jubilee visits to the Caribbean and Canada which deliver on UK prosperity objectives |
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1.5.i Publish a White Paper setting out the Government’s overall approach to the Overseas Territories |
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Her Majesty's Treasury 2.12.i Engage an independent auditor to give assurance that participating banks are complying with scheme rules |
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Her Majesty's Treasury 2.14.i Conduct an internal review to examine the role of employee ownership in supporting growth and examine options to remove barriers, including tax barriers, to its wider take up |
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Her Majesty's Treasury 3.2.i Legislate to implement proposals to establish a Financial Policy Committee (FPC) in the Bank of England; a Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) as a subsidiary of the Bank and an independent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) |
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Home Office 1.1.v Ensure an effective transition to Police and Crime Commissioners |
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Home Office 1.4.ii Make it easier for the public to protect themselves online and when using their mobile technology, working with key industry partners through the Home Office Forum for Innovation in Crime Prevention |
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Home Office 2.1.i Reduce and consolidate the amount of police national guidance, working with Association of Chief Police Officers |
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Home Office 2.2.v Phase out the National Policing Improvement Agency and transfer its key services to appropriate organisations, including the incorporation and streamline of forensics and some other former NPIA capabilities into the Home Office |
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Home Office 3.1.ii Develop a clear, coherent framework governing the use of out of court disposals, working in partnership with Ministry of Justice |
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Home Office 3.2.i Authorise the use of drug screening technology in police stations, supported by Department for Transport |
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Home Office 3.2.iii Identify, investigate, prosecute and seize the assets of drug traffickers more effectively by driving forward international collaboration through the European Union and directly building capacity in priority third countries |
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Home Office 3.2.iv Tackle the trade in illicit drugs, new psychoactive substances and cutting agents and prevent them entering the UK by building capacity in source and transit countries and detection capability within the UK |
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Home Office 4.4.iii Develop the Smart Zones concept which speeds up the processing of pre-checked low-risk passengers through border control points at specific ports and airports |
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Home Office 5.4.i Integrate responses to consultation into development of new CCTV Code of Practice |
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Home Office 5.4.iii Merge Criminal Records Bureau and Independent Safeguarding Authority and replace with the Disclosure and Barring Service, a single Non-Departmental Public Body, responsible for delivering new disclosure and barring services |
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Home Office 6.1.i Publish progress report |
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Ministry of Defence 1.2.iv Exercise the Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters (CJTF HQ) |
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Ministry of Defence 1.2.v Achieve CJEF Initial Verification of Concept (IVOC) |
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Ministry of Defence 2.1.i Publish the Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report 2012 (to include input from the 3rd Sector in line with the Civil Society Compact) |
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Ministry of Defence 2.3.i Develop a strategy, reflecting the Civil Society Compact, for working with Charities |
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Ministry of Justice 1.1.xv Test potential for further payment by results schemes through the phase II prison competition process |
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Ministry of Justice 1.10.i Publish high level strategic objectives for reducing female offending |
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Ministry of Justice 2.5.ii First annual data release on the number of Neighbourhood Justice Panels and the volume of cases brought to them |
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Ministry of Justice 2.6.i Extend or negotiate prisoner transfer agreements and ensure an increased focus on high volume countries is reflected in Ministerial inward and outward visits |
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Ministry of Justice 2.6.iv Develop and implement plans to improve communications with FNOs eligible for return under existing voluntary mechanisms |
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Ministry of Justice 2.6.vi Encourage EU Member States to implement promptly the EU Framework Decision on the Transfer of Prisoners |
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Ministry of Justice 3.1.i Upgrade the Prison to Court Video Link (PCVL) infrastructure to improve its reliability, and ensure that it integrates better with other video technology in courts |
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Ministry of Justice 3.1.ii Roll out PCVL in a further 47 Crown Court centres |
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Ministry of Justice 3.1.iii Decommission outdated victim and witness link technology and replace it with new equipment to improve reliability and integration with other video equipment |
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Ministry of Justice 3.1.iv Upgrade video infrastructure to enable videolink equipment to be used for all purposes, across all sites |
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Ministry of Justice 3.2.iii Commence testing of delivery options for flexible courts |
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Ministry of Justice 3.8.iii Conduct a post implementation review of the operational structure |
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Ministry of Justice 4.3.i Support an independent commission to publish a report on the creation of a UK Bill of Rights |