HC Deb 10 July 1975 vol 895 cc713-4
1. Mr. Ridley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce a system whereby spending Departments report to him monthly whether each sub-programme is costing more or less than budget.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Joel Barnett)

Under the Public Expenditure Survey system Departments already report changes in public expenditure estimates by sub-programme as they become known.

Mr. Ridley

Does the Chief Secretary agree that, in these times of galloping inflation, annual accounting is not good enough and that Peter Vinter's suggestion that there should be monthly reporting would allow the Government at least to know to what extent public expenditure was out of control?

Mr. Barnett

I shall not go too deeply into the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question. As I indicated in my first answer, we are already receiving every month a considerable amount of information.