§ Mr. Eggarasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which Minister in his Department is responsible for management information and accounting within his Department.
§ Mr. PriorThe Northern Ireland Office and each Northern Ireland Department has an accounting officer who is responsible to me for financial systems including management information and accounting. I am assisted by802W other Northern Ireland Office Ministers who each take responsibility for the work of one or more Northern Ireland Departments.
§ Mr. Eggarasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether a management information and accounting system is in use in his Department; whether the information adduced is received and analysed at ministerial level; whether it is publicly available; and whether any changes are proposed in the coining year.
§ Mr. Prior[pursuant to the reply, 28 July 1982, c. 549]: Expenditure by the Northern Ireland Office and the 803W Northern Ireland Departments is monitored using financial information systems which enable performance to be measured by Ministers and senior officials. This material is not made public. The Northern Ireland Office is now preparing a specific programme to improve financial management within the Department as part of the wider programme to improve financial management in departments referred to in my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister's reply on 7 July 1982 to the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Smith). The Northern Ireland departments are undertaking a similar review within the same timescale, and arrangements have already been made for the introduction of a modified MINIS system in the Department of Health and Social Services (Northern Ireland).—[Vol. 27, c. 1191]