Report on Government Services

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) provides a significant repository of information on the equity, efficiency and effectiveness of government services in Australia.

The Steering Committee will apply the following criteria to ensure that new services included in the RoGS offer the greatest potential return for the resources invested in performance reporting. Services already included in the RoGS will be reviewed from time to time to ensure that they continue to satisfy the criteria for inclusion.

1. The RoGS’ focus will be the effectiveness and efficiency of services provided directly to the community by or on behalf of government. Information on targeted income support or subsidies may be reported where it provides contextual information relevant to service performance or influences the achievement of service objectives.
2. Services included in RoGS should either:
   1. have common or similar objectives across jurisdictions, lending themselves to comparative performance reporting; or if jurisdiction-specific
      1. be of such community or economic significance to the national context in its own right that time series analysis in RoGS is appropriate
      2. make a significant contribution to the outcomes of services provided by other governments
      3. be part of a suite of services delivered across government.
   2. or make an important contribution to the community and/or economy, such that there is a significant public interest in the effectiveness and efficiency of service provision.
      1. Significance to the community may be indicated by the recognition of a service as a COAG priority or other measures of national public importance, recognising that priorities change over time. Significance to the economy may be indicated by the level of government expenditure or by the direct or indirect economic impact of a service.
3. In making a decision about including new services in RoGS, the Steering Committee will consider:
   1. the scope to rationalise or reduce reporting in other areas of the Report (particularly when Review resourcing costs are likely to be significant)
   2. whether proposed reporting will add sufficient value to other existing reporting exercises to offset the reporting burden
   3. whether relevant data collections to enable reporting according to the Steering Committee’s guiding principles exist
   4. the benefits and costs of establishing any new reporting requirements.
      1. Relevant benefits of establishing new data collections include those to potential users of the RoGS, and other users of the data, such as service clients, service providers, government purchasers of services, policy makers and researchers.
      2. Relevant costs of establishing new data collections include those to jurisdictions, service providers, data providers and the Productivity Commission in resourcing the Review Secretariat.