Business Plans: track progress in implementing our policies
These are the Government’s Business Plans for each department. They set out:
- Coalition Priorities
- Key policy and implementation actions for the remainder of this Parliament
- Expenditure for each remaining year of this Spending Review period
- Other departmental data, including an organogram, input and impact indicators and a section on Open Data.
You can use this site to track the Government’s progress in implementing the actions set out in the Business Plans. The graphs provide an overview of implementation progress across the full set of actions.
Click on a department to see its Business Plan commitments in full 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
Cabinet Office 2.13.i. Work with departments, interested groups and the public to improve the quality and usefulness of published Quarterly Data Summary (QDS) expenditure data |
Cabinet Office 3.3.ii. Publish quarterly updates of cross-government Facility Time data |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 3.1.i. Publish sector strategies for aerospace, life sciences, nuclear, oil and gas, agri-tech, information economy, education, professional & business services, offshore wind, construction and automotive) as part of the cross-government industrial strategy |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.1.iv. Introduce new settlement agreements to provide speedy resolution of workplace disputes |
Department for Communities and Local Government 1.5.iii. Publish revised and significantly reduced planning guidance supporting the National Planning Policy Framework including on shale gas |
Department for Communities and Local Government 1.5.iv. Publish a consultation on further flexibilities between use classes (agricultural and retail to residential) to promote high street revival and to help get empty buildings back into use |
Department for Communities and Local Government 2.8.i. Publish consultation on the outcome of Local Housing Standards Review, so as to simplify the framework of building regulations and local housing standards, to reduce significantly red tape imposed on developers |
Department for Education 2.6.i. Introduce new traineeships for 16-19 year olds as part of study programmes |
Department for International Development 5.1.i. Work in partnership with the Nike Foundation to bring private sector expertise into DFID’s strategy on gender equality, and stimulate innovative approaches to empowering adolescent girls |
Department for Transport 5.4.i. Introduce a fixed penalty offence for careless driving |
Department for Work and Pensions 2.5.i. Introduce employment and employability support to whole families by seconding Jobcentre Plus staff (Troubled Families Employment Advisers) into councils’ troubled families teams, and ensuring Jobcentre Plus is able to track the progress made to help troubled family members into employment |
Department of Energy and Climate Change 2.2.i. Award licence for central body to manage smart meter communications and data |
Department of Energy and Climate Change 2.2.ii. Establish process to award competitively procured contracts for centrally provided smart meter communications and data services |
Department of Health 2.13.iii. Consult on extending charging for NHS services to temporary residents currently exempted |
Home Office 3.5.v. Improve our ability to follow up allegations by improving guidance for staff and the public and by using technology to better gather and manage information, including tracking allegations from receipt to any subsequent enforcement action |
Actions to be completed this month
Cabinet Office 2.6.iii. Publish guidelines for Government’s use of ‘open standard’ software, to allow a wider range of suppliers to build and improve digital services in a more cost effective way for Government, and first set of open standards, measured by number of departments that have agreed to, or have an implementation plan for, each ‘mandated’ open standard |
Cabinet Office 2.9.iii. First cohort of 100 apprentices to join the Civil Service |
Cabinet Office 4.3.i. Carry out end to end test of digital service and dry run of automatic confirmation of all electoral registers |
Cabinet Office 4.6.ii. Work with departments to finalise preparations to take forward Local Growth Deals in advance of negotiations commencing in April 2014 |
Cabinet Office 6.1.iii. Create open and fair opportunities for internships across Whitehall, expanding and building on the Whitehall Internship Programme and working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to deliver a successful Fast Stream Diversity Summer Internship Programme in 2013 |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2.2.i. Learners begin courses funded using FE loans |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2.3.i. Pilot with providers how skills gain in English and Maths can be assessed and measured as the basis for funding in order to incentivise providers to deliver the greatest skills gains for their learners |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2.6.i. Publish final evaluation report, which will identify the most effective community learning approaches to support wider implementation |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 5.1.iii. Introduce a new employment status of employee shareholder |
Department for Culture, Media and Sport 1.2.iv. Support HMT in responding to the State Aid investigation of the UK’s implementation of video games industry tax relief |
Department for Culture, Media and Sport 4.3.ii. Deliver a successful 2nd National final of the School Games in Sheffield |
Department for Culture, Media and Sport 5.2.iii. Launch a programme to tackle homophobia and transphobia in schools, working with the Department for Education |
Department for Education 1.1.ii. Open the 2013 wave of free schools, including UTCs and studio schools |
Department for Education 2.1.i. Develop proposals and agree structure and content of the new national curriculum and subject criteria for associated GCSEs |
Department for Education 2.4.i. Reform post-16 vocational education to enable students to spend at least 50% of the study programme taking substantial qualifications and/or work experience at a level and rigour that will enable genuine progression into meaningful employment, training or further education |
Department for Education 3.1.i. Consider raising the minimum standard that primary and secondary schools and colleges need to meet by the end of the Parliament, so that all schools and colleges improve as national standards rise |
Department for Education 4.1.ii. Commence revised Graduate Teacher Programme |
Department for Education 4.1.iii. Launch new skills test for teacher trainees prior to commencement of course |
Department for Education 4.2.i. Implement the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body’s 21st Report to reform teachers’ pay by relating teachers’ pay progression to performance and giving schools more autonomy to set teachers’ pay within a broad national framework |
Department for Education 4.2.ii. Implement the 2013 pay award, following consideration of the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations in its 22nd report |
Department for Education 4.4.i. Introduce early years teachers |
Department for Education 5.3.i. Complete a consultation on making the Ofsted inspection rating the sole test of whether a provider can offer funded early education for 2,3 and 4 year olds |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1.2.ii. Announce all successful bids to the third round of the Rural Community Broadband Fund |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1.7.i. Publish a full assessment of further opportunities to implement an earned recognition approach to on-farm inspections, adding to the areas where the approach has already been introduced |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2.1.i. Designate first set of new Marine Conservation Zones |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2.3.iii. Publish Government’s response to the Ecosystems Market Task Force report, including a decision on the use of offsetting to improve biodiversity and reduce burdens on business |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2.9.ii. Consult online on proposals to make nature conservation guidance simpler, clearer and easier to find, as a pilot for wider guidance simplification |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 4.1.i. Respond to the recommendations of the Taskforce on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity |
Department for International Development 1.1.i. Introduce new web-based tools so people can see exactly how much tariffs and trade barriers increase the price of imports |
Department for International Development 2.2.i. Ensure the MDG Countdown event 2013 effectively draws international attention to MDG successes and lessons learned - particularly in relation to delivering for girls and women |
Department for Work and Pensions 1.1.ii. Run Universal Credit pathfinder and learn lessons to apply |
Department for Work and Pensions 1.3.i. Complete the phased roll-out of the benefit cap, working with local councils |
Department for Work and Pensions 1.8.i. Publish data on the proportion of customers for whom providers have received a Job Outcome payment at 24 months on the Work Programme |
Department for Work and Pensions 6.1.i. Put common benefit enquiries online |
Department for Work and Pensions 6.1.ii. Increase the proportion of new claims to Jobseeker’s Allowance submitted online to 80% |
Department for Work and Pensions 6.5.i. Strengthen the Habitual Residence Test question set |
Department of Health 3.3.iv. NHS England will publish the first of six of a range of tools and guidance to support Clinical Commissioning Groups deliver transformational change in relation to their QIPP objectives |
Department of Health 6.4.iii. Establish NIHR Diagnostic Evidence Cooperatives as expert centres in In-Vitro Diagnostics |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2.3.iii. Support the Finnish facilitator ahead of the Middle East WMD Free Zone Conference as soon as possible in 2013, working with the US, Russia and others, provided political conditions in the region allow it |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2.6.v. Deliver a programme of engagement with political parties and civil society, supplemented by frequent Ministerial visits to support a credible and stable democratic transition in Pakistan in the summer 2013 elections |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2.7.ii. Ensure constructive UK input into UN discussions on developing norms of behaviour in cyberspace |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1.2.v. In Africa, double the FCO’s prosperity presence in ‘Political Support Only’ posts from five to ten |
Her Majesty's Treasury 3.5.i. Promote competition in the high street by making it easier for customers and businesses to switch banks |
Home Office 2.4.iii. Legal closure of the National Policing Improvement Agency |
Ministry of Defence 1.5.vi. Introduce MERLIN Mk2 into service |
Ministry of Defence 2.6.ii. Produce a strategic Business Case for the delivery of a Personal Development Pathway which equips personnel progressively through their career with skills that can be deployed within Service (maximising their employability) and which has a vocational focus that prepares them for transition to a successful second career |
Ministry of Defence 2.7.ii. Develop and implement AFCAS serials that provide a better understanding of regular Service Personnel’s view of Reservists and Reservists view of regular Service Personnel and support the delivery of Future Reserves 2020 outcomes |
Ministry of Justice 5.3.i. Implement reforms to increase Fixed Penalty Notices and Penalty Notices for Disorder to raise additional funds for victims’ services |
Ministry of Justice 5.4.v. Reduce the burden of unmeritorious judicial review applications on the courts and on public authorities and contribute to the development of measures to streamline the process for planning judicial reviews |
Ministry of Justice 6.1.ii. Issue response to the consultation |
Ministry of Justice 6.1.v. Launch the consultation on eligibility/Universal Credit and options for building on the existing system for recovering legal aid from convicted defendants |
Ministry of Justice 1.2. i.Reduce the time limits for bringing a planning or procurement judicial review, removing the right to an oral renewal where the case is assessed as totally without merit |
Ministry of Justice 1.2. ii. Introduce a new fee for oral renewals |
Ministry of Justice 1.2. iii. Develop further measures to simplify and streamline the process for judicial reviews of planning matters |