§ MR. CHAPMAN (Cheshire, Hyde)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether His Majesty's Government purpose bringing in a measure this session to carry out the recommendations contained in the Report of the Joint Select Committee on Municipal Trading of last session in regard to the audit of the accounts of local authorities.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.In answer to my hon. friend I have to say that the President of the Local Government Board has naturally given very careful consideration to the recommendations of the Joint Committee, but he cannot accept them in their entirety. As regards the particular subject in which my hon. friend is interested—I mean the audit of the borough accounts—he thinks and hopes that with some modifications it might be possible ultimately to adopt the Committee's recommendation. But this is a controversial matter, and I do not think it would be possible to deal with it in the course of the present session.