HC Deb 03 December 1993 vol 233 c781W
Mr. Byers

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many files marked "not for National Audit Office eyes" are held by his Department.

Mr. Howard

No central record of files marked "not for NAO eyes" is maintained. The information could be obtained only by examining individually each of the 1.5 million extant files in my Department, and could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The marking "not for NAO eyes" is used rarely and in accordance with an agreement between the Treasury and the National Audit Office, under which documents relating to the handling of relations between Departments and the NAO and Public Accounts Committee are not automatically available to the NAO while they are current.

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