EXCHEQUER AND AUDIT DEPARTMENTS BILL (Hansard, 15 July 1957)

§ THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (LORD MANCROFT)

My Lords, the purpose of this Bill, a short one of three clauses, is to increase the salary of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The opportunity is also being taken to deal with some minor and consequential matters. The Comptroller and Auditor General, as your Lordships know, is the permanent head of the Exchequer and Audit Department, an office independent of the Executive, and the servant of Parliament.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, when the Department was reorganised on a modern basis, the Comptroller and Auditor General's salary has been equal to that of the Permanent Secretaries of other major Government Departments. Last year, as a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, the salary of permanent heads of Departments was raised from £4,500 a year to £6,000, with effect from April 1, 1956. It is therefore, I suggest to your Lordships, right and 1121 proper that the Comptroller and Auditor General's salary, now standing at £4,500 a year, should be increased to the same extent and from the same date.

This cannot, however, be done simply by administrative action. Under Section 3 of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866, the Comptroller and Auditor General is appointed by the Crown by Letters Patent. His salary is prescribed by Statute (and subsequently in the Letters Patent) as a charge on the Consolidated Fund. These provisions have been carried forward in intervening enactments, and it is necessary to take legislative action now to increase his salary on this occasion to conform with that of other departmental heads. The first clause of this Bill therefore provides that his salary may be £6,000 per annum from April 1, 1956. The change will be made by Letters Patent, as heretofore; and the increased salary will, or coarse, be payable to the present incumbent and to future incumbents of the office.

Your Lordships will appreciate that in modern times the introduction of legislation such as this is a cumbersome method of increasing the salary of this post The Bill therefore proposes that by Resolution in another place the salary of this post may be increased from any given date. In practice, this will be such occasions as the present, when other departmental heads benefit from salary increases. Your Lordships will see that this change applies to an increase in salary and it will not be possible to decrease the salary by this means. Because of the Comptroller's status, it is right to safeguard his independent position by requiring that any reduction (if one has ever to be made) should be effected not by Resolution but by a new Act of Parliament. It is proper that any Resolution to increase this salary which is a charge on the Consolidated Fund should be dealt with in another place.

In Clause 2 of the Bill the opportunity has been taken to cover certain eventualities which, under the present law, could cause inconvenience. First, under the present law the certifying and reporting of statutory accounts to both Houses may be performed only by the Comptroller and Auditor General himself, and if he were laid low for any considerable period there could be serious delay in public 1122 business. I am glad to say that the present holder of this office is held in widespread respect and also enjoys excellent health, but other circumstances might at times prevail. Subsection (2) of Clause 2 therefore permits delegation of this duty to other departmental officers, but only after a certificate has been given by the Speaker of another place, and, in appropriate cases, where accounts have to be presented to both Houses, by my noble and learned friend on the Woolsack as well. This power of delegation lapses in the event of a vacancy in the office of Comptroller and Auditor General. Subsection (2) also provides for the countersigning of warrants for the issue of Treasury Bills or Exchequer Bonds by a principal officer of his department at all times. These minor procedural changes are designed entirely to guard against the impediment of public business. If the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, were in his place I should assure him that this is not a controversial Bill which should cause him any alarm; and, further, it is one that I can cordially commend to your Lordships. I beg to move.