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Public Accounts

It is an enormous pleasure to respond to the debate on behalf of the Government. As the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) said and the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Mr. Bacon) mentioned, I have served as a member of the Public Accounts Committee under the chairmanship of the hon. Member for Gainsborough, and I congratulate him on the work he does. I am no stranger to public accounts debates, either: by looking back in Hansard, I confirmed that I attended and spoke in the debates on 26 January 2006 and 18 July 2006; and, after leaving the PAC on becoming Parliamentary Private Secretary to my right hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (John Healey), who was then a Treasury Minister, I attended the public accounts debate to which he responded. Serving on the Committee and seeing how ministerial decisions have been implemented gives one an insight that is really helpful when one takes up a ministerial post. We all know that Ministers make decisions in good faith—that was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell)—but, of course, that is not the end of the story. If those decisions are not implemented effectively, it undermines both the policy and the Government’s relationship with the people. That is why the Government have increasingly emphasised policy delivery—actually doing what we said we would do. Today’s debate has again emphasised not only the wide-ranging nature of the Committee’s work, but the fascinating insight it gives its members into the way Government works. As a former member of the Committee, I can attest to that. The Committee builds on a great, long and proud tradition of ensuring that public moneys are properly accounted for and provide value for money, and that the appropriate lessons can be learned when reports are produced. In these times when money is tight, as many speakers mentioned, it is even more important to ensure that we get the best value for money for every pound spent. That is where the Committee keeps Government up to the mark. I have just seen the letter from the hon. Member for Gainsborough to the Chancellor, which again illustrates the benefit that the Committee provides in terms of improving value for money. In his letter, the Chairman gives examples of how the Committee has helped Departments to achieve substantial savings and of where he thinks we can go further. All such suggestions are, of course, gratefully received. I do not want to match his list with a list of what the Government are already doing in each of the areas he highlights in his letter, nor do I wish to anticipate what we might say in our response to it, but I shall give a couple of examples. In financial management, where the hon. Gentleman highlights back-office costs, the Government have targeted savings of some £4 billion through standardisation and shared services; and in public sector procurement, we expect to achieve savings of some £7.7 billion through the operational efficiency programme. We all acknowledge that there is more to do, however. We shall examine with interest the specific examples in the hon. Gentleman’s letter, and respond to his comments.