HC Deb 03 July 1884 vol 289 cc1886-7
MR. STANLEY LEIGHTON

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Committee on Public Accounts, pages 7, 8, and 9, in which the methods of transacting business by the Education Department is condemned, especially in the following particulars, viz.:—That the Department maintains that the Education Code is superior to Statute Law (p. 7, s. 45); that money once paid to a school, either illegally or in excess of proper payment, ought not to be recovered (p. 8, s. 48); that the action of the Department has given occasion for a transaction which is, to say the least of it, most unusual (p. 8, s. 50); that a Memorandum prepared by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1881 is neglected (pp. 8 and 9, ss. 54–7); and, whether, in consequence of such Report, he will take steps to prevent the continuance of a system which, according to the opinion of the Committee, is incompatible with the theory and the practice of modern finance?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. CHILDERS)

My right hon. Friend has asked me to answer this Question. It will be seen, by reference to the proceedings from year to year of the Public Accounts Committee, that the practice of the Treasury is, after receiving the Report of the Committee, to frame a Minute directing the communications which the Treasury thinks necessary to be made to the various spending Departments, and expressing generally the views of the Department on such of the points raised by the Report of the Committee as call for notice. Thus, in the Report of the Public-Accounts Committee in 1882 appears the Treasury Minute on the Committee's Report of the previous year. In accordance with this practice, it will be the duty of the Treasury to take into their serious consideration the extracts from the Report of this Session to which the hon. Gentleman calls attention, and to make such communications as they think necessary thereon to the Education Department. The preparation of this Minute is one of the most serious duties of the Treasury as the Department of Control, and it is not often possible to complete it until towards the end of the year. The Treasury Minute of the Report of the Public Accounts Committee, which has just been presented to Parliament, will be in the hands of the Comptroller and Auditor General before the end of the year, and will be before the Public Accounts Committee on their assembling in the Session of 1885. In the meantime, it would be premature to express an opinion upon portions only of the Committee's last Report, especially as the evidence is not yet printed, and no sufficient opinion can be formed until it has been carefully perused.

MR. STANLEY LEIGHTON

asked whether these irregularities had been going on during nearly the whole time the present Government had been in Office?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. CHILDERS)

I cannot express an opinion upon the subject until I have read the evidence.