§ 55. Mr. Heathcoat Amoryasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will arrange for the future for the publication of the accounts of each individual county agricultural executive committee.
Mr. T. WilliamsNo, Sir. Trading and profit and loss accounts for England and Wales as a whole covering the services provided by county agricultural executive committees in 1948–49 have been presented to Parliament and trading estimates are published in the appendix to Civil Estimates, Class VI, Vote 9. In my view it would be invidious and misleading to publish separate accounts for each county committee without detailed statements of local conditions and circumstances, which vary widely as between county and county.
Mr. AmoryDoes not the right hon. Gentleman agree that his refusal to allow individual accounts to be published may encourage the notion that the committees have something to hide or some expenditure which is not fully justified? That is unsatisfactory to the committees and the public. Does he not feel that the undoubted fact he has mentioned, that circumstances vary between one county and another, makes it still more desirable that individual accounts relating to these special circumstances should be published?
§ Mr. TurtonAre the accounts available to members of the county committees, and do they know what other counties are doing?
Mr. WilliamsWe advise county committees where we find they are, perhaps, not quite up to the standard of some of 636 the more efficient committees, always bearing in mind the widely varying circumstances in each county.