The Fiscal Maze (Jul 2006)

Alex Brazier and Vidya Ram
ISBN 978 0900432 08 8
£12 or available free via download

The Fiscal Maze: Parliament, Government and Public Money looks at how Parliament holds government to account for the money it raises and it spends on our behalf. The report argues that Parliament’s scrutiny of taxation, expenditure and public services is fundamental to our political system but that Parliament could and should do more to make an impact and secure full accountability from government.

The report’s recommendations include:

• 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 2007;
• 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 or a Joint Committee on Tax Administration;
• There should be separate HM Revenue and Customs committee within the House of 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;
• To enhance a scrutiny culture within Parliament, there should be a move towards a deeper notion of accountability so that individual lessons are translated into general reforms of public institutions; scrutiny and follow-up should focus on achieving improvements in outcomes ensuring wider lessons are learned and mistakes not repeated.

The report also examines the role of the Audit Commission, scrutiny of PFI projects, improvements in Parliament’s support and resources and accessibility to the public.

In December 2005, the Hansard Society published an interim paper, Inside the Counting House: A Discussion Paper on Parliamentary Scrutiny of Government Finance (by Alex Brazier and Vidya Ram, ISBN: 0900432926, £5, December 2005).  This paper is also available free via download.

This project, and both publications, have been generously funded by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Acccountancy.