§ Mr. BaconTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport who the Finance Director of(a) the Department and (b) the Office of the Rail Regulator is; what accountancy qualifications each Director holds; and on how many occasions there has been a qualified opinion on (i) the resource accounts and (ii) other accounts of each in the last five years. [183420]
§ Mr. McNultyThe Finance Director of the Department for Transport is Mr. Ken Beeton. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. There have been no occasions on which DfT accounts have been qualified.
The Executive Director who had responsibility for finance for the Office of the Rail Regulator was Mr. Keith Webb. Responsibility for this appointment rested with the Rail Regulator. Mr. Webb did not hold an accountancy qualification. However, in line with Government Accounting, a senior manager who was a qualified accountant with 15 years post qualification experience, supported the Director and provided the appropriate level of financial advice. The new Office of Rail Regulation, which was established on 5 July 2004, will appoint a Finance Director. It does, however, have a Non-Executive Board member with responsibility for finance who is Mr. Peter Bucks.
Since April 1999, the accounts of the Office of the Rail Regulator have been qualified once. The Resource Accounts-for financial year 2002–03 were qualified. The qualification related to resource expenditure of £0.4 million in excess of the amount authorised for the Request for Resources. The cause of the excess was additional consultancy expenditure incurred on the interim review of Network Rail Access Charges not being forecast in time to secure a supplementary estimate.