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Public Accounts

The hon. Gentleman and his colleagues on the Public Accounts Committee may want to look at the question of financial management and control and value for money in that context. If they do so, I look forward to the conclusions that they draw. I noted the mention made again by my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Kitty Ussher) of her ten-minute Bill. I hope that the hon. Member for South Norfolk is a sponsor, because he is clearly in favour of her proposals. She stressed the attention that the PAC can give to economic policy, especially in the regions, and I certainly welcome that interest. I hope that the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mrs. Miller) sees the fact that 93 per cent. of the PAC’s recent recommendations have been adopted and put into practice by the Government as confirmation, which she encouraged, of how seriously we take the Committee’s work, although we do not quite see the Committee as somehow our in-house management consultancy, as she suggested. She talked about the importance of child care to both the social and economic future of this country. I welcome her strong, albeit reasonably questioning, support for the policies that we are pursuing. She is right to say that we want every pound invested in child care to work hard. In closing, I want to touch on two vital general areas for the Government in which the PAC also has an active interest: first, the efficiency programme following the Gershon review, which the hon. Member for Gainsborough mentioned, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley; and, secondly, the comprehensive spending review. The Government are committed to improving public sector efficiency following both the Gershon and the Lyons reviews. Departments own their efficiency plans, however, and it is their responsibility to report on their own progress. They do that in the autumn performance reports and the annual departmental reports. The Chancellor also provided an update on the aggregate progress, both at the Budget last year and in the pre-Budget report, and the Treasury reports on overall progress on efficiency as part of reporting on our spending review 2004 target 9. The efficiency programme is delivering results, as the Chancellor showed in his recent update: £4.7 billion on efficiency gains released back to the front line. In addition to the monetary figure, a total head-count reduction of 31,000 was confirmed and the relocation of a total of 6,300 staff was completed. Those aggregate gains are based on departmental returns that are reported against a very robust measurement framework on a quarterly basis. Every pound reported can be traced to individual delivery programmes. Those returns are scrutinised and checked for consistency quarter on quarter. However, we will not consider them final until they have been subject to a full verification, which is of course carried out after the end of each financial year. The comprehensive spending review sets an important context in which we can consider and incorporate recommendations received from the PAC. A decade on from the first CSR, the 2007 comprehensive spending review will represent a long-term and fundamental review of Government expenditure, and it will cover departmental allocations for three years, beginning in 2008–09. Since 1997, the Government have shown that we can deliver for Britain a strong economy and sound public finances at the same time as sustained and sustainable growth in investment in public services. But what we need now is an assessment of the long-term challenges facing our country and our public services, focusing on the major global and domestic long-term trends to which public spending and public services need to respond over the next decade. That assessment must also focus on the conclusions of the long-term reviews that are already under way into the future of transport, skills, pensions and local services. Britain faces a rapid increase in the old-age dependency ratio. We also face an intensification of cross-border economic competition, an acceleration in the pace of innovation and technology, continued global uncertainty and threats, as well as increasing pressure on our natural resources and global climate. These challenges will have fundamental and far-reaching implications for our public services and they will require innovative policy responses, co-ordination of activity across Departments, and sustained investment in key areas. The comprehensive spending review will be tough and challenging. It will take a zero-base approach to assessing the effectiveness of Departments’ existing spending in delivering the outputs to which they are committed. The review will also look at how the public expenditure framework can best embed and extend ongoing efficiency improvements and support the long-term investments needed to meet these challenges. The CSR therefore offers an important opportunity for the Government to take stock of what we have achieved and to prepare for the challenges ahead—one to which I am sure the PAC will make an important contribution. Perhaps I can end where the PAC’s 17th report began. It stated:"““One of the key strengths of the Committee of Public Accounts is its ability to examine the way in which public money is used to deliver these services right across Government.””" We in the Government and in the House, as well as the public at large and the civil service, owe a debt of gratitude to the Committee for its work. The report went on to say:"““Governments have acted on most of our recommendations and in doing so, in many cases, have secured financial savings, improved the standards of public services and tackled the risks to successful delivery.””" With the PAC’s advice, we will continue to do just that.