§ Mr. Garro Jonesasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he will make a full statement showing the progress made in applying to the form of public accounts the recommendations of the Select Committee on Estimates, as put forward in 1918 and accepted in principle by the Government in 1926?
§ Lieut.-Colonel ColvilleI assume that the hon. Member is referring to certain recommendations relating to the form of accounts which were made in 1918 in their Seventh Report by the Select Committee on National Expenditure. These recommendations were tentatively adopted in the Army Estimates for the years 1919 to 1925, but after full experience had been gained the old form of Army Estimates was restored in 1926 (see H.C. 196 of 1925, Second Report of the Select Committee on Public Accounts, 1925, pp. XXII to XXVI). These recommendations were not adopted in any other Estimates. The Select Committee on National Expenditure in their Seventh and Ninth Reports, 1918, suggested that some reclassification of the Civil Estimates was advisable, and this matter was the subject of further recommendations by the Select Committee on Estimates in 1926, which were adopted by the Government (see the statement by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the House on the 15th July, 1926).