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Public Accounts

With your permission, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I shall say a few words to sum up. May I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate? First, I thank the hon. Member for Dagenham (Jon Cruddas), who is valued former member of the Committee. I will raise with the Comptroller and Auditor General the matter of our producing a report on how demographic factors can influence public policy. The hon. Gentleman made his point extremely well. I also thank the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) for speaking so eloquently in our debate. He suggested that the National Audit Office should be involved in the debate on identity cards. There is a slight problem there, because the NAO is very keen to stay out of current political issues. However, I agree that that issue is one that we need to keep careful tabs on. I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) for her contribution. She is a highly valued new member of the Committee, and she uses her Treasury experience to good effect. She made a very good point about the problem relating to our reports being produced so long after the event. I sometimes feel that we are kicking a corpse that has been dead for a long time, as happened several times in relation to the dome. I have raised this issue again with the Comptroller and Auditor General and he has promised me that we can try to produce much shorter reports that hon. Members can actually read. If they were about 20 pages long and written in narrative form, they would be easily understood. That would enable us to drive the oversight process forward much more quickly. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr. Bacon) for his contribution today and for being a sterling member of the Committee throughout my chairmanship. With the right hon. Member for Swansea, West (Mr. Williams), we alone on the Committee have said that, if someone becomes an Opposition spokesman, they must leave the Committee. We have maintained the purity of the Committee in that regard. My hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk has chosen to stay on the Committee and not to become an Opposition spokesman, as his abilities merit. I am grateful to him for that. I thank the hon. Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry) for her contribution and for the valuable experience in risk management and project management that she has brought to the Committee. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark) for his powerful remarks about our work in controlling the para-state, as he put it, and those parts of the state that are not as accountable as they should be. I am grateful for what the hon. Member for Burnley (Kitty Ussher) said about smart procurement. I say this to my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mrs. Miller): it is true that we view ourselves, in our capacity as allies of the Treasury, as low-paid management consultants—paid much less than those employed by the Financial Secretary—but we do our best. My hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) experienced her first outing on the Front Bench. Yesterday we had before us a permanent secretary with another 14 years to serve. I have no doubt that my hon. Friend will serve for at least 14 years with great distinction, in and out of Government. She spoke of delivering a 1 per cent. efficiency improvement—£14 billion of gains. That is a lot of money to play with. Of course I also thank the Financial Secretary for what he said. I am very proud of our work. In an era of rapid increases in public expenditure we do not question what is being done, but I believe that we can make a difference. This is one part of Parliament that is doing a superb job. I thank all who have contributed to this excellent debate. Resolved,"That this House takes note of the 17th and the 20th to the 52nd Reports of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2003–04, the 1st to the 30th Reports of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2004–05, and the 1st to the 3rd, the 5th, 6th, 10th and 11th Reports and the First Special Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2005–06, and of the Treasury Minutes and the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel Memoranda on these Reports, Cm 6271, 6282, 6302, 6303, 6304, 6332, 6355, 6416, 6441, 6458, 6468, 6496, 6577, 6578, 6579, 6609, 6667, 6668, 6682, 6689, 6712 and 6724."