ACCOUNTS AND AUDIT (Hansard, 3 April 1979)

HC Deb 03 April 1979 vol 965 cc1260-2 1260

§ ' (1) It shall be the duty of the Unit—

(a) to keep proper accounts and proper records in relation to the accounts; and
(b) to prepare in respect of each accounting year, in such form as the Secretary of State may with the approval of the Treasury direct, a statement of those accounts; and
(c) to send the statement to the auditors for the time being appointed in pursuance of this subsection and to do so within six months beginning with the last day of the accounting year to which the statement relates;

and the accounts kept and the statement prepared in pursuance of this subsection shall be audited by auditors appointed by the Treasury. (2) As soon as the accounts and statement of accounts of the Unit for any accounting year have been audited, the Unit shall send to the Secretary of State a copy of the statement and a copy of any report made by the auditors on the statement or on the accounts of the Unit, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to lay before each House of Parliament a copy of every statement and report of which a copy is received by him in pursuance of this subsection. 1261 (3) On and after 1st April 1980 the preceding provisions of this section shall have effect with the following amendments—

(a) in subsection (1) the words from "in such" to "direct" in paragraph (b) shall be omitted and for the words "appointed by the Treasury" there shall be substituted the words "appointed by the Unit";
(b) after that subsection there shall be inserted the following subsection—

(1A) A person shall not be qualified to be so appointed unless he is a member of one or more of the following bodies—
the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales;
the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland;
the Association of Certified Accountants;
the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland;
any other body of accountants established in the United Kingdom and for the time being recognised for the purposes of section 161(1)(a) of the Companies Act 1948 by the Secretary of State;
but a Scottish firm may be so appointed if each of the partners in the firm is qualified to be so appointed.;

(2) It shall be the duty of the Unit to include, in the first report it makes in pursuance of section 9 of this Act after the accounts and statement of accounts of the Unit for any accounting year have been audited, a copy of the statement and of any report made by the auditors on the statement or the accounts. (4) The Secretary of State may, before 1st April 1980 or any later date for the time being specified in the preceding subsection by virtue of this subsection, direct that the preceding subsection shall have effect with the substitution for the reference to the date there specified of a later date specified in the direction. (5) In this section "accounting year" means the period of twelve months ending with 31st March in any year except that a particular accounting year shall, if the Secretary of State so directs, be such other period not longer than two years as is specified in the direction.'.—[Mr. John Fraser.]

§ Brought up, and read the First time.

§ Mr. John Fraser
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
This clause is concerned with auditing. It provides that audits on the lines of Government audits should take place until 31 March 1980, when the unit will be in receipt of direct grant from central Gov- 1262 ernment. Thereafter, when it is expected that the matter will pass to the control of the local authorities, the audit arrangements will accord with those relating to local authority organisations.
There is a provision to continue the Government-type audit, but the local authority associations can be assured that the Secretary of State can only use his powers to vary the date of coming into force of the modification in subsection (3) if, contrary to expectations, grant-in-aid continues beyond 1 April 1980.

§ Question put and agreed to.

§ Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.