Public Accounts Committee (United Kingdom)
The Committee of Public Accounts is a select committee of the British House of Commons. It is responsible for overseeing government 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... 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, when he was British Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1860s. The first Public Accounts Committee was established in 1862 by a resolution of the British House of Commons: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 and many non-Commonwealth countries. A minister from Her Majesty's Treasury 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 appointed The Committee of Public Accounts to oversee the work of the Comptroller and Auditor General 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.
Notable failures highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee
The Public Accounts Committee has criticised the expenditure on numerous government projects over the years, such as:- the NHS National Programme for IT, which was described as one of the worst fiascos ever in the history of public sector contracts.
- the decommissioning of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site, noting the cost of decommissioning had now reached £67.5 billion, and there was "no indication of when that cost will stop rising".
Membership
Chairs of the Public Accounts Committee (1861–present)
House of Commons standing orders give the opposition party the right to chair the committee| Year | Chairman | Party |
| 1861–63 | Sir Francis Tornhill Baring | Liberal |
| 1864–1866 | Rt Hon Edward Pleydell-Bouverie | Liberal |
| 1866 | Mr George Sclater-Booth | Conservative |
| 1867–68 | Mr Hugh C E Childers | Liberal |
| 1869 | Mr William Pollard-Urquhart | Liberal |
| 1870–71 | Rt Hon George Ward Hunt | Conservative |
| 1872–73 | Mr George Sclater-Booth | Conservative |
| 1874–76 | Rt Hon John George Dodson | Liberal |
| 1877–1880 | Lord Frederick Cavendish | Liberal |
| 1884–85 | Sir Henry Holland | Conservative |
| 1886 | Sir John Eldon Gorst | Conservative |
| 1887–88 | Sir John Lubbock | Liberal Unionist |
| 1889–92 | Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth | Liberal |
| 1893 | Mr Edmond Wodehouse | Liberal Unionist |
| 1894–95 | Sir Richard Temple | Conservative |
| 1896–1900 | Mr Arthur O'Connor | Irish National |
| 1901–05 | Rt Hon Sir Arthur Hayter | Liberal |
| 1906–08 | Rt Hon Victor Christian William Cavendish | Liberal Unionist |
| 1908–18 | Col Robert Williams | Unionist |
| 1919–20 | Rt Hon Sir Francis Dyke Acland | Liberal |
| 1921–22 | Mr Aneurin Williams | Liberal |
| 1923 | Mr Frederick William Jowett JP | Labour |
| 1924 | Lt Col Rt Hon Walter Edward Guinness | Conservative |
| 1924–29 | Rt Hon Willian Graham JP | Labour |
| 1929–31 | Mr Arthur Michael Samuel | Conservative |
| 1931–38 | Mr Morgan Jones | Labour |
| 1938–41 | Rt Hon Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence | Labour |
| 1941–43 | Lt Col Rt Hon Walter Elliot | Unionist |
| 1943–45 | Lt Col Sir Assheton Pownall OBE TD | Unionist |
| 1946–48 | Rt Hon Osbert Peake | Conservative |
| 1948–50 | Rt Hon Ralph Assheton | Conservative |
| 1950–51 | Sir Ronald Cross and Rt Hon Charles Waterhouse | Conservative |
| 1951–52 | Mr John Edwards | Labour |
| 1952–59 | Sir George Benson | Labour |
| 1959–63 | Rt Hon Harold Wilson | Labour |
| 1963–64 | Rt Hon A.L.N. Douglas Houghton | Labour |
| 1964–70 | Rt Hon John Boyd-Carpenter | Conservative |
| 1970–73 | Rt Hon Harold Lever | Labour |
| 1972–73 | Rt Hon Edmund Dell | Labour |
| 1974–79 | Rt Hon Edward DuCann | Conservative |
| 1979–83 | Rt Hon Joel Barnett | Labour |
| 1983–97 | Rt Hon Robert Sheldon | Labour |
| 1997–2001 | Rt Hon David Davis | Conservative |
| 2001–10 | Mr Edward Leigh | Conservative |
| 2010–15 | Rt Hon Dame Margaret Hodge | Labour |
| 2015- | Ms Meg Hillier | Labour |