By Richard Staines
03 June 2010
The Public Accounts Committee must improve the way it measures government spending plans, such as the £6.2bn proposed cuts, according to one of the candidates for the role of chair.
Hugh Bayley, Labour MP for York Central, is standing against former culture minister Margaret Hodge in the new Congress-style election for the position. The PAC, which works closely with the National Audit Office in scrutinising government expenditure, is one of the most influential select committees in the House of the Commons.
From this year, the heads of all select committees must be elected after receiving at least 15 nominations from MPs, of which at least five should come from other parties.
The coalition government has opted to implement proposals in the Wright Committee’s report on reform of the Commons, which calls for committee chairs to be elected in a secret ballot of all MPs.
Bayley told Public Finance: ‘There are two lessons that need to be learned. These are firstly, does the PAC provide enough information on government expenditure? The other is to identify areas where there is a discrepancy between the government’s stated goals and the outcomes and where we can measure performance. We can develop ways where we can measure performance if it is consuming enough money.’
A former research fellow in health economics at York University, Bayley also said the government must ensure overseas development contributions are audited properly. This was particularly important ‘where it is provided to a government of a developing country as a contribution to that government’s budget, rather than as a contribution on a certain project’.
He added: ‘It could be books for schools… managed by British civil servants. It is important when hundreds of millions of pounds of public money is being spent that it is transparent. The taxpayer can then be reassured that the money is being spent as the government intended.’
Margaret Hodge was unavailable for comment as she was on holiday as Public Finance went to press.
Meanwhile, Nick Raynsford, Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, is standing for chair of the communities and local government committee. At the time of writing, he did not have a rival for the post.
Raynsford, who served as minister for local and regional government from 2001 to 2005, said he hoped to grapple with issues raised by government policy such as greater devolution, localism and the concept of Total Place.
‘We have a lot of structures for scrutiny at local and central government but there is very little cross-fertilisation between the two. I would like to see more of this,’ he told PF.
The secret ballot of MPs to decide the committee chairs will take place on June 9, followed by a secret ballot of each party to elect committee members. The new committees are expected to be up and running by the end of June, faster than the old system, which took up to three months.
Conservatives Andrew Tyrie and Michael Fallon will go head to head in the ballot for the chair of the Treasury select committee. Other MPs thought to be in the running for committee chairs include former Conservative health secretary Stephen Dorrell, who is hoping for the health post. Keith Vaz, previous chair of the home affairs committee, faces a challenge from former Welsh secretary Alun Michael.
03 June 2010
The Public Accounts Committee must improve the way it measures government spending plans, such as the £6.2bn proposed cuts, according to one of the candidates for the role of chair.
Hugh Bayley, Labour MP for York Central, is standing against former culture minister Margaret Hodge in the new Congress-style election for the position. The PAC, which works closely with the National Audit Office in scrutinising government expenditure, is one of the most influential select committees in the House of the Commons.
From this year, the heads of all select committees must be elected after receiving at least 15 nominations from MPs, of which at least five should come from other parties.
The coalition government has opted to implement proposals in the Wright Committee’s report on reform of the Commons, which calls for committee chairs to be elected in a secret ballot of all MPs.
Bayley told Public Finance: ‘There are two lessons that need to be learned. These are firstly, does the PAC provide enough information on government expenditure? The other is to identify areas where there is a discrepancy between the government’s stated goals and the outcomes and where we can measure performance. We can develop ways where we can measure performance if it is consuming enough money.’
A former research fellow in health economics at York University, Bayley also said the government must ensure overseas development contributions are audited properly. This was particularly important ‘where it is provided to a government of a developing country as a contribution to that government’s budget, rather than as a contribution on a certain project’.
He added: ‘It could be books for schools… managed by British civil servants. It is important when hundreds of millions of pounds of public money is being spent that it is transparent. The taxpayer can then be reassured that the money is being spent as the government intended.’
Margaret Hodge was unavailable for comment as she was on holiday as Public Finance went to press.
Meanwhile, Nick Raynsford, Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, is standing for chair of the communities and local government committee. At the time of writing, he did not have a rival for the post.
Raynsford, who served as minister for local and regional government from 2001 to 2005, said he hoped to grapple with issues raised by government policy such as greater devolution, localism and the concept of Total Place.
‘We have a lot of structures for scrutiny at local and central government but there is very little cross-fertilisation between the two. I would like to see more of this,’ he told PF.
The secret ballot of MPs to decide the committee chairs will take place on June 9, followed by a secret ballot of each party to elect committee members. The new committees are expected to be up and running by the end of June, faster than the old system, which took up to three months.
Conservatives Andrew Tyrie and Michael Fallon will go head to head in the ballot for the chair of the Treasury select committee. Other MPs thought to be in the running for committee chairs include former Conservative health secretary Stephen Dorrell, who is hoping for the health post. Keith Vaz, previous chair of the home affairs committee, faces a challenge from former Welsh secretary Alun Michael.
