Investor Confidence Rating - Quality of Long Term Investment Plans

The requirement for long term investment plans (LTIPs) is set out in Cabinet Office circular CO(15)5.

A Long Term Investment Plan is a strategic planning document with a planning horizon of at least 10 years (for investment intensive agencies). It describes an agency’s potential investment journey: the rationale for and implications of investment choices and actions that are designed to meet government’s long term service delivery goals.

LTIPs should provide high quality information on agency investment intentions and performance because this information informs all of government prioritisation processes, decisions on fiscal policy settings and the affordability of current policies and future service delivery strategies. In line with the ICR assessment cycle, LTIPs must be updated at least once every 2 years.

The circular requires that LTIPs must:

In terms of investment management...

• be integrated with, and provide the investment context for, agency short to medium term plans
• provide a sound basis for regular investment performance reporting and for an agency’s annual report to Parliament
• provide a reliable focus for the investment decisions and activities of the agency or sector
• enable integrated decision-making and co-ordination of the resources of the agency and other parts of the State services
• reveal sufficient details of proposed investments and disinvestments, as reported to the Treasury in the government project portfolio dataset, to enable Government Investment Ministers and the corporate centre to fulfil their respective roles
• reveal the impact of investment intentions on the agency’s forecast financial statements, taking account of expected costs and funding sources such as asset disposals and the use of baseline and depreciation funding over the planning period
• consider what capabilities will involve third party suppliers and provides an overview of how these supplier relationships will be managed.

In terms of asset performance...

• reveal the expected impact of investment intentions on future asset performance, in terms of meeting changes in demand, enabling level of service improvements, and renewing assets, and
• reveal assets that are expected to be surplus to requirements, and whether such assets will be subject to formal Crown disposal processes.

For ICR purposes, the quality of long term investment plans is assessed against the requirements in the Cabinet Office circular along with an assessment guide developed by the Treasury. Further information and the long term investment plan guide is found at Long Term Investment Plan.