HC Deb 14 April 1964 vol 693 c250

The Committee will recall that last May we published a White Paper on the Reform of the Exchequer Accounts. This was intended as a basis for informed discussion rather than as a set of specific proposals for the revision of the accounts. Since then we have continued the study of this problem. This study has profited by the discussion stimulated by the White Paper and by the comments we have received.

This is a complex and difficult problem. No analysis of the transactions of the Government can satisfy all the purposes for which figures are needed. I do not think that we are yet ready to make firm proposals for a revision of the Exchequer accounts. But it may be useful to carry forward a year the figures which we published in last year's White Paper, and I am considering the publication of a further White Paper which would do this and indicate the lines of our further thinking.