1 Introduction
The Sub-Committee's scrutiny programme
1. The Treasury Sub-Committee undertakes a regular
programme of scrutiny of the administration and expenditure of
the Chancellor's departments. In addition to annual hearings with
HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Sub-Committee
has each year taken evidence from a rotating selection of bodies
which fall under the Chancellor's remit: the Office for National
Statistics, the Statistics Commission, the Office of Government
Commerce (OGC), National Savings & Investments, the Debt Management
Office (DMO), the Royal Mint, the Adjudicator's Office, the Government
Actuary's Department (GAD) and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).
The hearings that the Sub-Committee has held in recent Parliamentary
sessions are summarised in Table 1.
Table 1: Sub-Committee scrutiny sessions,
2001-02 to 2007-08
| Department or body
| 2001-02
report
| 2002-
03
report
| 2003-04
report
| 2004-05
report
| 2005-06
report
| 2006-07
report
| 2007-08 report
|
| Adjudicator's Office
| | Oct 03
| | | | Nov 07
| |
| Debt Management Office
| | Jun 03
| | | Jan 07
| | Oct 08
|
| Government Actuary's Dept
| Jul 02
| | | | Nov 06
| | Oct 08
|
| HM Revenue & Customs:
Inland Revenue
Customs & Excise
|
Jun 02
Jun 02
|
Jun 03
Jun 03
|
Jun 04
Jul 04
| Oct 05
| Nov 06
| Dec 07
| Oct 08
|
| HM Treasury
| | Sep 03
| Feb 05†
| Nov 05
| Oct 06
| Nov 07
| Oct 08
|
| National Savings & Investments
| Jan 03
| | | Oct 05
| Feb 07
| | |
| Office for National Statistics
| Oct 02
| Oct 03
| Oct 04
| Nov 05
| #
| | |
| Office of Government Commerce
| | Jan 04
| Apr 04*
| | May 06
| Oct 07
| |
| Royal Mint
| Nov 02
| Nov 03
| | | Nov 06
| Oct 07
| |
| Statistics Commission
| Oct 02
| Sep 03
May 03*
| Sep 04
| Nov 05
| #
| | |
| Valuation Office Agency
| | | | Oct 05†
| Jan 07
| | Oct 08
|
Note: * denotes an appointment hearing for
new Chairman/Director/Chief Executive; † denotes a part of
a wider meeting; # denotes scrutiny of 2005-06 annual reports
not undertaken due to inquiry into Independence for statistics
published July 2006.
2. In examining the administration and expenditure
of the Chancellor's Departments in 2007-08, the Sub-Committee
chose to concentrate on the VOA, DMO, GAD, HM Treasury and HMRC.
As part of the work leading to this Report, the Sub-Committee
has taken oral evidence from officials from each of these bodies.
The Sub-Committee has also heard evidence regarding the revaluations
of statutory ports[1] from
the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt. Hon. Stephen
Timms MP, and the Minister for Local Government, the Rt. Hon.
John Healey MP. We concluded our inquiry by taking evidence from
the Exchequer Secretary, Angela Eagle MP, the Financial Secretary,
the Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP, and the Economic Secretary, Ian
Pearson MP, on themes arising from our previous scrutiny sessions.
We are grateful to all those who assisted the Sub-Committee in
the course of its inquiry.
Relevant documents
3. The scrutiny sessions held by the Sub-Committee
have been based largely on the published Reports and Accounts
of the Treasury, HMRC and other bodies subject to examination.[2]
1 A review of the ratings of UK statutory ports, undertaken
by the VOA, led to notable increases in business rate charges
for many businesses and a large volume of correspondence for this
Committee. More details can be found in section 7 of this report.
Back
2
HM Treasury, Annual Report 2007-08, July 2008, Cm
7408; HM Treasury Resource Accounts 2007-08, July 2008, HC539;
HM Revenue & Customs, Departmental Report 2008, July
2008, Cm 7401; The Valuation Office Agency Annual Report 2007-08,
July 2008, HC 583; The Government Actuary's Department Annual
Report and Resource Accounts 2007-08, July 2008, HC615; UK Debt
Management Office Annual Report & Accounts 2007-08, July 2008,
HC963 Back
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