§ 24. Dame Irene Wardasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will set up a special committee of inquiry into the system of financial control of War Office expenditure, in view of the recent report of the Committee of Public Accounts.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftNo, Sir. The Report of the Public Accounts Committee is now being examined and a Treasury Minute will be furnished to the Committee in the ordinary way.
§ Dame Irene WardWhen the examination has taken place, will my right hon. Friend let the House have an indication of the facts discovered and the actions taken? Would he not agree that to screw down a lot of people for small 760 amounts one way or another and allow a Government Department to waste money at the rate of millions of pounds does not really arouse a great deal of confidence in the financial control which his Department exercises over some Government Departments?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe normal procedure is for a Treasury Minute to be provided to the Committee of Public Accounts, which normally furnishes that as an appendix to one of its reports to the House of Commons. This has worked very well in the past and I think that we might stick to it.