Local Government (Audit Practice)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 6:54 pm on 28 July 1983.

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Photo of Mr Michael Knowles Mr Michael Knowles , Nottingham East 6:54, 28 July 1983

I was interested to hear what the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) said, especially about the independence of local government. I should have been glad of his support when I was leader of Kingston council when we were fighting off endless attempts by the Labour Government to force us to make our schools comprehensives. They were totally unsuccessful, and Kingston remains the only local authority with grammar schools and secondary schools, but no comprehensive schools. Local councils can win such battles if they box clever, but if they take on Governments direct they are likely to lose.

The hon. Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Meadowcroft) mentioned internal audits, but the difficulty with them is that many councils are fairly small and the staff are necessarily drawn from the finance departments. They are not independent. When they pursue their careers, they may wish to return to the mainstream of the financial side of councils, so the fear must be that occasionally they will pull their punches. I examined a system for setting up a police force composed of internal auditors, corporate planners and school inspectors, but that was not workable. We need a powerful outside audit, and the concept of the commission is right.