HC Deb 17 February 1902 vol 103 cc207-8
MR. LAMBERT

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he will cause information to be collected † See (4) Debates lxxi, 243. and published as to the practice of Foreign Parliaments in dealing with Estimates; and whether he will initiate a system whereby the Estimates of the public departments should be examined by a Committee or Committees of the House before presentation to Parliament, approximating as far as possible to the procedure of the Public Accounts Committee after the money has been spent.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The hon. Member proposes that I should initiate a system whereby the Estimates of the Public Departments should be examined by a Committee of the House. The propriety or possibility of that plan is one of the things, and indeed, probably the main thing, which the Committee that the Government intend to appoint will have to consider. Therefore it would be absurd to suggest that the Government should themselves initiate, such a system until they have the Report of the Committee before them. If that Committee should desire any information with regard to the practice of foreign Parliaments, the Government will do their best to obtain it; but, speaking for myself, I doubt whether our conditions are sufficiently analogous to systems in foreign countries to make such information of much value.