§ Mr. Tim SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what progress her Department is making with the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting; and in respect of which financial year she expects to publish the first set of resource accounts. [4988]
§ Mr. Sproat[holding answer 21 November 1996]The Department of National Heritage has this month introduced a new accounting system which will enable the concurrent production of cash and accruals based information. This new system will give the Department the ability to continue to produce the existing cash information required by Treasury, while at the same time develop the commercial style accounts required from 1998–99. The Department continues to discuss with Treasury the development of appropriate accounting policies, output and performance measures for the new resource accounts, as well as discuss how best to implement a resource based public expenditure survey. As set out in Cm 2929, the first published resource accounts for the Department will be in respect of 1999–2000.