Government of Wales Bill

My Lords, I say on behalf of these Benches what a great pleasure it is to receive the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, back into the debate. I will try to give her the reassurances that she seeks. As we have heard, Amendment No. 75 would remove Clause 135. In doing so, it would deprive the House of Commons of the right to scrutinise, via reports of the UK Comptroller and Auditor General, how money that it has voted to the Secretary of State for Wales for payment into the Welsh Consolidated Fund has been spent. Clause 135(1) gives the Comptroller and Auditor General the right to examine payments into and out of the Welsh Consolidated Fund. Payments into the Welsh Consolidated Fund will largely comprise moneys voted by Parliament, so Parliament is entitled to see how the money that it has voted has ultimately been spent. It is only right that Parliament’s appointed statutory auditor should have the right to examine the accounts of these payments and to report the results of his examination to the House of Commons. However, there is no question of the Comptroller and Auditor General overriding or short-circuiting the line of accountability to the Assembly. The Auditor General for Wales will have primary responsibility for scrutinising the payments into and out of the Welsh Consolidated Fund. He will examine and certify the accounts that Welsh Ministers have to prepare and lay his report on them before the Assembly. The Assembly’s Audit Committee can then consider and report on those certified accounts. While it is entirely a matter for the UK Comptroller and Auditor General to decide when to exercise his examination rights under Clause 135, it is anticipated that they would be used only in the event of a serious problem which the UK Comptroller felt could not adequately be dealt with in Wales or in collaboration with the Auditor General for Wales. The comptroller currently has the right to examine the Assembly’s finances under Section 101 of the Government of Wales Act 1998. That power has never yet been exercised. The Wales Audit Office has confirmed to the Government that it is content with the arrangements. The noble Baroness also asked about what would happen if there was an adverse report. If the accounts do not comply with the directions issued by the Treasury on format and content, the Auditor General is under no legal duty to examine and certify them. That duty is only triggered once he receives accounts prepared in compliance with any Treasury directions under Clause 131(2). If the accounts omit the requisite content or are not in a compliant format, the Auditor General can simply send them back to the Welsh Ministers and ask for them to be reprepared. Provided the accounts comply with the Treasury directions, the Auditor General must examine, certify and report on them, but, if he is unhappy with or concerned about any item in the accounts, it is open to him to issue a qualified report that flags up his concerns to the Assembly and its Audit Committee, who will then be able to hold the accounting officer to account for those items.