§ Mr. John Garrettasked the Lord President of the Council if it is the policy of Her Majesty's Government that the Comptroller and Auditor General and his Department should be responsible to the House.
§ Mr. FootThe Government agree with the summary of the constitutional position of the Comptroller and Auditor General which appears in paragraphs 6 to 8 of the memorandum on the work of the Exchequer and Audit Department which was submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General to the General Sub-Committee of the Expenditure Committee in November 1976, and published on pages 582–586 of Volume II (Part II) of the Eleventh Report of the Expenditure Committee, 1976–77. As the Government made clear in their reply to Recommendation 51 of that report (Cmnd 7117, page 27), they consider it of cardinal importance that the Comptroller and Auditor General should not be subject to directions from any quarter in the exercise of the duties laid on him by statute to undertake an effective audit and scrutiny of the expenditure of the Executive.