Call to improve spending scrutiny

MPs have called for more to be done to ensure effective scrutiny of government spending.

In a report published on Monday, the Commons liaison committee said that Parliament should do more to scrutinise finances in Whitehall.

The 31 chairmen of the Commons committees said that they should increase their scrutiny of expenditure and that better quality financial information should be provided to the House.

The "over-complex" financial system for government needed to be simplified, said the report.

And it said that committees, as well as the National Audit Office, should be given confidential details on private finance initiative contracts.

"It is inherent in the House's right to control expenditure that the House and select committees should have access to sufficient information about PFI contracts to make possible an assessment of whether they offer value for money," it said.

Pointing out that there are only three days a year reserved for debating departmental estimates, and said that MPs should be able to do more to hold the government to account on financial matters.

"The proposals in this report would strip away the mystery from the government's finances, changing the Government's reporting of what it spends to something which ordinary people can understand," said Conservative MP Michael Jack, who helped to prepare the report. 

"They would make it possible for Parliament to examine the government's financial proposals with much greater knowledge and understanding, to the benefit of all, including the government itself."