The Committee of Public Accounts is a select committee of the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

. It is responsible for overseeing

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

expenditures, and to ensure they are effective and honest. The committee is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in government financial operations, having been described by Professor the Lord Hennessy as "the queen of the select committees...

hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

by its very existence exert a cleansing effect in all government departments".

Overview

The recommendation for the creation of a committee to oversee government accounts was first put forward in 1857 by a small group of interested Members of Parliament led by Sir Francis Baring. The structure and function of the PAC date back to reforms initiated by

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

, when he was British

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...

in the 1860s. The first Public Accounts Committee was established in 1862 by a resolution of the

There shall be a standing committee designated "The Committee of Public Accounts"; for the examination of the Accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament to meet the Public Expenditure, to consist of nine members, who shall be nominated at the commencement of every Session, and of whom five shall be a quorum.

The form has since been replicated in virtually all

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an International organization, international association of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, 56 member states, the vast majo ...

and many non-Commonwealth countries. A minister from

His Majesty's Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, taxa ...

sits on the committee but, by convention, does not attend hearings. The Chair of the committee is always drawn from the main opposition party and is usually a former senior Minister. The

Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 ( 29 & 30 Vict. c. 39) is the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom under which most of the revenue from taxation, and all other money payable to the Exchequer, must be paid into the Consolidat ...

appointed The Committee of Public Accounts to oversee the work of the

Comptroller and Auditor General An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations. F ...

(C&AG) The Committee continues to be assisted by the C&AG who is a permanent witness at its hearings, along with his staff of the National Audit Office, who provide briefings on each report and assist in the preparation of the Committee's own reports.

Membership

Membership of the committee is as follows:

2019-2024 Parliament

The chair was elected on 27 January 2020, with the members of the committee being announced on 2 March 2020.

Changes 2019-2024

2017–2019 Parliament

The chair was elected on 12 July 2017, with members being announced on 11 September 2017.

Changes 2017–2019

2015–2017 Parliament

The chair was elected on 18 June 2015, with members being announced on 7 July 2015.

Changes 2015–2017

2010–2015 Parliament

The chair was elected on 10 June 2010, with members being announced on 12 July 2010.

Changes 2010–2015

Chairs (1861–present)

House of Commons standing orders give the party of the

official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

the right to chair the committee.Standing Order 122B(8)(f)
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References

'', 1 May 2005, Policy Research Working Paper WPS3613,
Scrutinizing public expenditures: assessing the performance of public accounts committees
* Pelizzo, Riccardo, Stapenhurst, Rick, Saghal, Vinod and William Woodley, What Makes Public Accounts Committees Work?, Politics and Policy, vol. 34, n. 4, December 2006. pp. 774–793. * Riccardo Pelizzo and Rick Stapenhurst, Strengthening Public Accounts Committees by Targeting Regional and Country Specific Weaknesses, in Anwar Shah (ed.), Performance Accountability and Combating Corruption, Washington DC, The World Bank, 2007, pp. 379–393. * Jacobs, K. 1997. ‘A reforming accountability’, International Journal of Health Planning and Management 12: 169–85. * Jacobs, K.1998. ‘Value for money auditing in New Zealand: competing for control in the public sector’, British Accounting Review 30: 343–360 * Jones, C. 1987. ‘The Origins of the Victorian Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee’, MA, University of Melbourne.

External links

Public Accounts Committee homepage

Records for this Committee are held at the Parliamentary Archives
{{Chairs of the Public Accounts Select Committee Westminster system Select Committees of the British House of Commons 1861 establishments in the United Kingdom UK