§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, on how many occasions sums in excess of £10 million were erroneously paid by the Local Chancellor's Department into the Consolidated Fund in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement. [22550]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonNo individual payments in excess of £10 million have been made by the Lord Chancellor's Department into the Consolidated Fund in error in the last 12 months. The Department secured a short surrender of £12,002,137 from the Consolidated Fund to recover moneys wrongly paid into the fund, due to an error in the accounting processes employed by the magistrates courts during the 2000–01 financial year. The mistakes were detected by internal controls and action has been taken to tighten procedures and to ensure that the mistakes are not repeated. None of the individual payments was for £10 million or more, and the funds were recovered from the Consolidated Fund by short surrender.