asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether any of the recent inquiries into Civil Service matters have devoted attention to the potential improvement of the methods of working in Government Departments; and whether he will consider the desirability of appointing a small committee to investigate methods of work in private organisations, such as insurance companies and banks, to see whether any useful guidance can be obtained from their respective systems for adoption. in the service of the State?

The methods of working employed in Government Departments form the subject of continuous inquiry, in the course of which much information has been, and is being, collected in regard to the systems of work adopted by outside business institutions. If the hon. Member has in mind inquiries by outside experts, I would mention an inquiry into Government accounting methods which is now in progress with the assistance of outside accountants of acknowledged authority. The hon. Member will find an allusion to this inquiry in the "Times" of yesterday. I had myself already observed in the "Times" a statement by the hon. Member, to use his own words, that unlike all business houses, the Civil Service has never introduced any improvements into its system of working and that it is hopeless to expect it to do so. I should be failing in my duty if I did not say that I totally disagree with that view.