§ Mr. E. BROWNasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Treasury minute of 1920, restricting the appointments of public auditors under the Industrial and Friendly Societies Acts. 1893 and 1896, to members of the institute of Chartered Accountants and the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors, has been amended at any time so as 245W to permit of persons other than members of these bodies being appointed; whether he is aware that from the list of Public Auditors, published in the "London Gazette" in respect of the year 1927, it would appear that eight persons were appointed public auditors who were not members of these bodies; and if he can state the reasons for this departure from the conditions laid down in the Regulation?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLAn exception was made to the general conditions governing the appointment of Public Auditors in the case of the eight persons referred to in the question. This was a condition of an arrangement made with the co-operative movement to overcome a difficulty in which they were placed by reason of the condition of 1920. The members of the audit department of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Limited, are responsible for the audit of the returns of approximately 600 distributive trading societies, and any disturbance of the arrangements for conducting these audits would have caused great inconvenience to the societies in question. In 1926 an arrangement was come to under which future members of the audit staff of the Co-operative Wholesale Society will be able to obtain one of the qualifications laid down, but in order to provide for adequate service until such time as the arrangement could take full effect, appointments were made exceptionally.