§ Mr. Tim SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress(a) his and (b) the Lord Advocate's Department is making with the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting; and, in each case, in respect of which financial year he expects to publish the first set of resource accounts. [4997]
§ Mr. James Douglas-HamiltonThe Scottish Office commissioned a new accounting system on 1 April 1996 capable of handling accruals accounting. Good progress is being made on introducing accounting for fixed assets, and on attaching expenditure to objectives, as required by schedule 5 to the proposed accounts, and the Scottish Office will be introducing its resource accounting system during 1997–98.
The Lord Advocate's Department, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, will be introducing its resource accounting system in April 1998.
Both Departments in common with others, are preparing to implement resource budgeting in time to form the basis for the year 2000 survey. As set out in Cm 2929 the first published resource accounts for the Departments and all other Departments will be in respect of 1999–2000.