ABSTRACT
Accountability via scrutiny of national finance The Chamber’s scrutiny of national finance is derived from the fact that only Parliament has the legal authority to sanction public expenditure and revenue. Parliament retains the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the expenditure which has been sanctioned is both properly and efficiently spent (see role of Comptroller and Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee). Figure 61 relates to the most important aspect of expenditure, the supply services, where statutory authority is provided for expenditure on a specific service. Figure 62 relates to the most important aspect of revenue, namely ways and means business, which relates to statutory authority for taxation on an annual basis. The two are combined in Figure 63 to give an overall finance cycle. The supply services cycle began with departmental estimates in Autumn, which progressed into a white paper on public expenditure, followed by the various votes on account to authorise expenditure prior to the passing of the Appropriation Act. The ways and means cycle had as its centre-piece the Budget which needed to be passed as a Finance Act by a deadline of 5 August. In 1993, however, the annual finance cycle was reformed to dovetail projected expenditure and pro-
posed revenue into one joint proposal, which could be passed by Parliament before the start of the new financial year in April. Hence the Chancellor of the Exchequer now delivers the Budget in the November of every year instead of the spring.
