§ Baroness Birkasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will provide details of the "significant weaknesses" in the marketing division of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission mentioned in Lord Elton's reply to Baroness Birk (HL Debates, 25th March 1986, col. 1389) both in terms of total excessive expenditure and as a percentage of the marketing costs.
§ Lord EltonAs indicated in my earlier replies of 26th February (HL Debates, 26th February 1986, col. 1046) and 25th March, the commission's own internal auditors found weaknesses in the financial control of its marketing division. In 1985–86 that division was allocated a final budget of £1.8m by the commission. This included an addition of £0.6m agreed by the commission during the year once it had become clear that the division's expenditure would exceed its original budget. This excess arose mainly because the division was incurring expenditure which had not been properly authorised or sufficiently rigorously controlled. Those are the weaknesses to which I referred previously. My reply of 25th March made clear the very serious view which I and the chairman of the commission take of these weaknesses, and the steps which my department and the commission have taken to ensure that suitable controls are applied in future.
The commission's total expenditure did not exceed its budget of £59m in 1985–86, and was therefore not excessive.