Parliament must do more to scrutinise government spending

Liaison Committee’s recommendations on financial scrutiny a real step forward


The Hansard Society welcomes the House of Commons’ Liaison Committee report on financial scrutiny and urges Parliament to do more to scrutinise and seek accountability for government spending.

The Hansard Society’s report The Fiscal Maze; Parliament, Government and Public Money (2006), made several proposals to improve Parliament’s financial scrutiny functions (detailed below). The Hansard Society welcomes the Liaison Committee’s recommendations which, if implemented, represent a real move in the right direction.

In particular, we endorse the Committee’s recommendations that there should be better and more comprehensible financial information from government and more time for debate and inquiry on government spending plans. Proposals to give Parliament opportunities to debate or vote on individual programmes or items of expenditure would strengthen Parliament’s scrutiny role. In total, the Committee’s proposals signal a change in how Parliament prioritises this crucial work.

Alex Brazier, Director of the Hansard Society Parliament and Government Programme, and joint author of The Fiscal Maze, commented:

'Effective scrutiny of government spending is essential for the operation of good government. Everyone - Parliament, Government and the public - has a strong interest in making sure that there is full transparency, debate and accountability of public money. The Liaison Committee's proposals should make a difference in achieving that.’

The  Fiscal Maze report’s recommendations included:

• Parliamentary committees should make greater use of the time between the pre-Budget report and the main Budget to take evidence on the government’s plans and feed its recommendations back to government;
• Parliament should become fully involved in the process leading up to the Comprehensive Spending Review;  
• A parliamentary committee should consider the entire Finance Bill in draft;
• Parliament should improve its scrutiny of tax legislation and administration; options include establishing a separate Tax Administration or Taxation Committee in the Commons;
• To give a higher priority to financial scrutiny, Parliament should consider piloting a Finance and Audit Sub-Committee for selected select committees.
• There should be more systematic follow-up of the reports of the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee.

Click here to download a PDF of The Fiscal Maze; Parliament, Government and Public Money (A. Brazier & V. Ram, July 2006)