Report highlights improvements in government project management

The report says that the ratings of 53 projects have improved over the last year, with "significant progress" on transport, security and public services projects.

The MPA uses green, amber and red ratings to track the delivery confidence assessment (DCA) of each project, with green indicating projects seen as most likely to succeed, and red the projects facing the most serious challenges, it said.

In 2012 31 projects were rated amber/red or red. Fourteen of these have now improved to green, amber/green or amber, the MPA said. None are now assessed as red, and only nine are amber/red, the report said.

In 2014, for the 60 projects due for completion by September 2015, there were two red DCAs, 10 amber/red and 19 amber, the MPA said.

In its introduction to the report the government argued that "the majority of our most complex projects are moving steadily towards completion".

"We have successfully completed a number of projects over the last year. These include the Home Office's National Crime Agency and the Cabinet Office's Electoral Registration Transformation Programme," it said.

The government must, however, change how it sets up projects, MPA chief executive Tony Meggs said.

"Perhaps the most significant intervention that we plan to make over the next twelve months is to improve the initial set-up of projects," Meggs said.

"The success or failure of projects is most often determined at their earliest and most formative stage. Projects that have crystal clear objectives, well-defined benefits, appropriately detailed plans, the right level of financial resource, the right people with the ability to understand and manage key stakeholders, and the right leaders - these are the projects most likely to succeed. The more we can do to set all of our projects off on the right course, the fewer will sail into stormy waters and find themselves with a red delivery confidence assessment (DCA) in the next Annual Report," he said.

The UK government's major projects portfolio includes 188 projects worth £489 billion over the next 40 years, covering infrastructure, public services and defence. The MPA was set up in 2011 as a partnership between the Cabinet Office and the Treasury to understand the risks in such projects and help departments to deliver them successfully.

Government 'transformation and service delivery' projects form the largest category, with 80 projects at September 2014. These are followed by 48 ICT projects, 39 infrastructure and construction and 21 defence equipment projects.

In August last year the Public Accounts Committee said that the MPA needs more powers if it is to tackle "serious weaknesses" in the ability of government to deliver projects.