HC Deb 13 June 1955 vol 542 cc250-1
6. Mr. Gresham Cooke

asked the Minister of Health if he will give the grades and numbers in each grade of his Department's staff employed in the audit of the accounts of regional hospital boards; and why no officers of the class of professional accountants are employed in this work.

Mr. Iain Macleod

The staff employed in the audit of the accounts of all National Health Service hospital authorities, executive councils and certain other authorities is as follows:

3 Chief Executive Officers.
15 Senior Executive Officers.
60 Higher Executive Officers.
120 Executive Officers.
75 Clerical Officers.
The service conforms with comparable audit services in the Civil Service in which a professional accountancy qualification is not required. The senior appointments —that is, Senior Executive Officer and above—are, however, made only from officers with adequate practical experience in accountancy and auditing.

7. Mr. Gresham Cooke

asked the Minister of Health whether he will consider employing professional accountants in order to eradicate present weaknesses in store accounting at hospitals, to which attention has been drawn in the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and to which reference is made specially in paragraph 4 of his report on the accounts of 1953–54 of regional hospital boards, etc.

Mr. Iain Macleod

It is the normal practice of hospital authorities to give preference to candidates with professional qualifications when appointing their finance officers.

Mr. Cooke

Is it not a fact that there are many professionally qualified accountants working for other Government Departments who, to the national advantage, might be seconded to this work?

Mr. Macleod

I am not sure. I have not enough knowledge of all Government Departments to know whether or not that is so, but it is true that most posts are now filled by qualified persons, and that is certainly a point which we encourage. It is true, however, that upon the appointed day we naturally took over a number of finance officers without professional qualifications.