Consultation outcome

Reporting guidance update: Summary of changes and response to consultation

Updated 11 November 2020

1. Updates to the reporting guidance

The SSRO released the following updated guidance on 11 November 2020:

• Reporting guidance on contract reports, version 9;
• Reporting guidance on supplier reports, version 8;
• Reporting guidance on DefCARS functionality, version 9; and
• DefCARS validation checks.

The revisions to the guidance address the following areas:

• Contract completion date and guidance on the initial contract reports;
• Defined pricing structure;
• On-demand reporting, specifically the contract pricing statement and the contract reporting plan;
• Other minor changes; and
• Updates to validation rules.

This report provides a detailed outline of where changes have been made to the guidance. The report is not itself guidance and stakeholders should have regard to the published guidance documents to understand the SSRO’s guidance on the preparation of statutory reports under the regulatory framework.

Some of the revisions to the guidance were the subject of recent consultation. The SSRO’s response to that consultation is also provided in this report.

2. Response to consultation

On 20 February 2020, the SSRO issued a set of reporting guidance consultation documents on its website and to its Reporting and IT sub-group members for consultation for a period of eight weeks. To allow for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SSRO extended its consultation to 1 September 2020, giving stakeholders more time to respond.

The SSRO consulted on reporting guidance proposals in the following areas:

• Contract completion date; and
• Changes to its guidance on the initial contract reports.

The SSRO received input on the draft guidance at its Reporting and IT sub-group meeting with key stakeholders on 25 February 2020. In addition, the SSRO received written responses from five stakeholders from the stakeholder groups set out in Table 1.

Table 1 – Stakeholder responses to consultation

Organisation	Number of responses
Ministry of Defence	1
Industry respondents	4
Total	5

We would like to thank respondents for sharing their views with us. We have considered all responses in drafting this consultation response document and set out the reasons for the changes we have decided to make. The changes are reflected in version 9 of the SSRO’s contract report guidance and will be explained to the Reporting and IT sub-group at its meeting on 25 November 2020.

The responses received to the consultation, and any resulting changes which the SSRO has decided to make, are set out in Appendix 1 of this document. The final guidance in this appendix details the paragraph numbering as applicable to the published version of the guidance.

3. Other guidance changes

3.1 The defined pricing structure (DPS)

During its review of reporting requirements in 2019 the SSRO consulted on changes to two paragraphs of its contract report guidance on the DPS used to split costs in the contract reports. The findings of the review were published in June 2020 and confirmed that changes would be made to the guidance on contract reports. The final guidance on these DPS paragraphs has been introduced to the contract report guidance in this update. The changes are summarised in Appendix 2.

3.2 On-demand report functionality

The proposal to develop on-demand report functionality and associated reporting guidance as part of the amendments and variance project has been the subject of engagement with stakeholders, including discussion at the Reporting and IT sub-group in July 2019 and as part of the SSRO’s review of legislation consultation in December 2019. The SSRO has worked to simplify the on-demand report capability within DefCARS, and the guidance on this functionality has been introduced to the contract report guidance in this update. The changes are summarised in Appendix 3.

3.3 Minor changes

We have made additional minor changes to the guidance, which seek to provide better explanation of some DefCARS functionality and better descriptions of what the contractor should expect to see on some pages and how to complete those pages. These changes have been introduced across the contract report, supplier report and DefCARS functionality guidance in this update. The changes are summarised in Appendix 4. Consequential changes to other parts of the guidance have been made, such as updates to paragraph numbering and cross referencing. These changes are not detailed in this document.

3.4 Updates to validation rules

The system has been developed to carry out a range of automatic validation checks at the point of report submission, providing information on whether reporting requirements are being met. The SSRO keeps the set of validation warnings under review to ensure they target reporting requirements in a proportionate way. We have identified some additional validations, which have been introduced into DefCARS and are identified in our list as version 6. We have also amended the wording of some validation warnings. The full set of validation warnings can be seen on our website.

4. Further feedback

This report will be published on the SSRO website on 11 November 2020, together with the updated guidance. The SSRO continues to welcome feedback on improvements to its reporting guidance. To provide feedback or to seek assistance with reporting please email us at helpdesk@ssro.gov.uk or telephone 0203 771 4785.