Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I can certainly confirm that that is the Government's intention. After all the work the Chair of the PAC has done on the appointment of the current Comptroller and Auditor General, he would be most unhappy if we had to go through the process all over again. The Bill provides for the establishment of a new corporate body—the new National Audit Office—whose functions will include providing resources for the Comptroller and Auditor General's functions, monitoring the execution of those functions and approving the provision of certain services. Importantly, the new NAO will be able to support and challenge constructively the CAG's decisions without, of course, preventing him from carrying out his statutory responsibilities. I come to the proposals made by my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins). As he was not feeling too well during the Second Reading debate, he did not get on to the points he wanted to make about the national audit provisions—I hope he is feeling better today. Amendment 68 would set out in statute that the principal function of the CAG is to further the purposes of national audit, which he set out in new clause 41. Amendment 78 would enable the CAG to have access to thousands of private sector companies that supply central Government. I thank the hon. Members for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke), for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh), for Cambridge (David Howarth) and for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne) for their contributions to this debate. Most who spoke this afternoon are of the same opinion; we welcome the contribution that these proposals have made to the debate, but the consensus is that they are not necessary. I shall now discuss the detail, where we have been extremely fortunate that the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee was able to share his insight into the appointments process. On new clause 41, of course the CAG exists to assist Parliament in holding the Government to account for the use that they make of public funds and, in doing so, promotes the objectives that my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North mentions. I can assure him that the Government value that work as much as he does. I cannot dispute the fact that the effect of the arrangements in this part of the Bill will indirectly strengthen parliamentary scrutiny, but that is not their primary purpose. The Government are implementing the recommendations of the Public Accounts Commission's 15th report. In doing so, we are accepting the commission's two driving principles. The first is the need to ensure that the CAG has authority to form completely independent judgments about the audits and value-for-money studies conducted by the NAO. The second is the need for the NAO to maintain systems of governance and internal controls consistent with best practice. When we prepared the provisions in part 7, we took the utmost care not to jeopardise the CAG's independence in those areas. As now, the Public Accounts Commission will oversee the work of the CAG and the NAO—indeed, its role is increased by these reforms. However, it would be inaccurate to describe the main purpose of this part of the Bill as strengthening parliamentary control, because, as the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee said, its focus is rather on strengthening governance. I would add that the Government are doing a number of things to improve parliamentary scrutiny of government expenditure. Hon. Members will be aware that the Government provided a memorandum to the Liaison Committee in March containing formal proposals to Parliament for better alignment between budgets, estimates and accounts. The memorandum explained the plans to simplify the Government's financial reporting to Parliament, ensuring that they report in a more consistent, transparent and straightforward fashion on spending plans, estimates and expenditure outcomes. I hope to assure the hon. Member for Cambridge that further work on the way Parliament supervises expenditure continues in a number of ways, including through the work of the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons, which is expected to bring forward its proposals shortly.