Appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I thought I was about to have the new experience of being intervened on before I had begun my remarks. First, I join right hon. and hon. Members in paying tribute to Sir John Bourn for the service that he has provided in his 20 years as Comptroller and Auditor General. He has been an effective examiner of Government expenditure and provided outstanding service in identifying waste, as the Father of the House eloquently explained. Sir John also showed support for the Public Accounts Committee, which does so much to protect the interests of the taxpayer. As we have heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh), the Chairman of that Committee, Sir John has been an invaluable servant of the House. The National Audit Act 1983 enables the CAG to carry out examinations of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of public bodies and Government Departments. I do not want to shatter the bipartisan atmosphere, but I must say that never before has that role been so necessary or so relevant. Hon. Members of all parties recognise that although public spending may be very high, there are still great questions about the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of much of that spending. In that context, the appointment that we are debating is of considerable importance. Sir John has undoubtedly learned a great deal in his 20 years as Comptroller and Auditor General. He wrote about his experiences in his recent book ““Public Sector Auditing: Is it Value for Money?””, which is so popular that the Library was unable to locate a copy of it when I asked it to do so earlier this week. It had been deluged with requests for it. He characterised public sector bureaucracy as something that"““looks inward, not outward, to process rather than outcomes, to hierarchies rather than teams, to rules rather than initiative and to detachment from, rather than engagement in, human interests””." It is certainly not for the National Audit Office to solve all those problems on its own, or even by working with the Public Accounts Committee. Those problems need to be addressed through a more fundamental change to how government is run.