By Vivienne Russell | 10 July 2013
CIPFA’s Sir Harry Page Merit Award has been won by a team from the Department for Work and Pensions for their work managing risk and uncertainty.
Chris Page and Lee Woodcock received the award, which is presented annually for outstanding technical innovation, in recognition of their work on the DWP’s integrated resource planning team.
The judges said their work represented an advanced approach to managing uncertainty in financial forecasting. In particular, the use of the ‘Monte Carlo’ simulation technique was thought to have offered a valuable way of dealing with uncertainty.
Announcing the award, CIPFA president Jaki Salisbury said: ‘Chris Page and Lee Woodcock’s work within the Integrated Resource Planning Team of the Department for Work and Pensions is an impressive example of how public servants are striving to improve the performance of their departments. Their work on managing risk and uncertainty rightly deserves this year’s Sir Harry Page Merit Award.
‘I am glad that this recognises the hard work being undertaken by members of the public finance profession in central government, as they strive to turn the politicians' and the public’s understandable demands for healthier public finances into a reality.’
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