§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will furnish a statement showing the number of men employed by the Comptroller and Auditor-General on the local audit of each of the Irish accounts in the financial year 1906–7, the time thus occupied on each account, the total cost of travelling and subsistence allowance for each account, and the corresponding particulars of the proposed Estimate in 1907–8.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) As regards the first part of the Question I beg to refer the hon. Member to the Answer given on 16th April last on this subject. † The total cost of travelling and subsistence in connection with the local audit of Irish accounts in 1906–7 amounted to about £815, and it is anticipated that about the same amount will be spent in 1907–8.
§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will grant a statement showing the respective numbers of Irish and English accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General; the respective numbers of Irish and English accounts audited locally throughout the whole year both in London and at the out-stations, and the respective numbers of the men employed on these permanent local audits; the respective numbers of Irish and English accounts, for which duplicate records of payments and other items are kept at the headquarters of the Audit Office on the Victoria Embankment, the respective numbers of men employed on such accounts, and the respective approximate proportions of time devoted to keeping these duplicate records of payments and other items and to auditing these accounts.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The total number of accounts (the Army, Navy, Post Office, etc., each counting as one) audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General is 197, of which forty-four are exclusively Irish. The relative magnitude may be measured by the fact that in the Estimates for 1907–8 the total voted accounts for all services (in-
† See (4) Debates, clxxii., 740.1571 eluding those common to Great Britain and Ireland) amount to £110,062,000, of which the purely Irish accounts amount to £4,459,000. The stations at which a permanent local audit is carried out and the number of staff employed are given in the Answer to a Question from the hon. Member of 26th February last† Duplicate records are not kept except in the case of the accounts of the Chancery Suitors Fund (England) in accordance with the directions of the Lord Chancellor and the Treasury.