Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), has again expressed concerns about the content of the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA), the third set of which have been published by the Treasury.

Morse's strongest continuing criticism of the WGA 2011-12 concerns the Treasury's policy on which bodies are included, which is based on whether they are classified as being in the public sector by the Office of National Statistics. As a result, Network Rail is excluded, along with the publically owned banks on the basis that their public ownership is a temporary state of affairs.

He also maintained that a 'lack of detail' in parts of the WGA limited its usefulness, and the data need to make improvements is not currently available. For example, the government's accounts do not break down expenditure by function or show how it is distributed across the UK's nations.

Morse said the WGA is still not being produced fast enough, despite the Treasury's having again brought forward its publication date. However, he stated that 'the Department is making significant progress towards its medium-term goal of delivering the WGA within nine months of the year end'.

Morse said: 'The WGA is a key means through which Parliament and the public can hold government to account for the money it spends and the activities it undertakes. If the WGA is to achieve its full potential, the Treasury must do more - such as using accounting standards to decide whether publicly owned and controlled bodies should be included in the accounts. The Treasury should also work further to raise the profile of the WGA within government and ensure it is used more effectively to help decision-making.'

The WGA suggests that the government's measures to reduce the deficit are starting to have an impact, with an underlying reduction to the accounting deficit of £11bn. The deficit for 2011-12 stood at £185bn (compared to £94bn reported for 2010-11). However, once the 2010-11 position is adjusted to take into account a gain of £126bn arising from reducing the indexation rate for public sector pensions and a £24bn reduction in the value of social housing, this represents a year-on-year reduction.The government's overall net liability is currently £1,347bn compared with £1,186bn billion in 2010-11.Commenting on the publication of the WGA, PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: 'The WGA has been qualified again for a number of reasons that the Treasury must now address. For example, inconsistent valuation of local government infrastructure could put the accounts out by as much as £200bn and a lack of evidence means we can't be sure what the true value of school assets is.'