The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) (strictly, the Committee of Public Accounts) is a select committee of the British House of Commons. It is responsible for overseeing government expenditures to ensure they are effective and honest. The PAC is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in government financial operations, having been described by Professor Peter Hennessy as "the queen of the select committees...[which]...by its very existence exert[s] a cleansing effect in all government departments."
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The recommendation for the creation of a committee to oversee government accounts was first put forward in 1857 by a small group of interested Members of Parliament led by Sir Francis Bearing.
The structure and function of the PAC date back to reforms initiated by William Ewart Gladstone, when he was British Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1860s. The first Public Accounts Committee was established in 1861 by a resolution of the British House of Commons:
There shall be a standing committee designated "The Committee of Public Accounts"; for the examination of the Accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament to meet the Public Expenditure, to consist of nine members, who shall be nominated at the commencement of every Session, and of whom five shall be a quorum. 31 March 1862.
The form has since been replicated in virtually all Commonwealth of Nations and many non-Commonwealth countries.
A minister from Her Majesty's Treasury sits on the committee but, by convention, does not attend hearings.
The Committee is assisted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), who is a permanent witness at its hearings, along with his staff of the National Audit Office, who provide briefings on each report and assist in the preparation of the Committee's own reports.
As of 31 October 2011, the members of the committee are as follows:
1 Chloe Smith was elected to the committee because she is Economic Secretary to the Treasury, but by convention generally does not attend or vote.
Source: Public Accounts Committee
Occasionally, the House of Commons orders changes to be made in terms of membership of select committees, as proposed by the Committee of Selection. Such changes are shown below.
| Date | Outgoing Member & Party |
Constituency | → | New Member & Party |
Constituency | Source | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 November 2010 | Eric Joyce MP (Labour) | Falkirk | → | Dr Stella Creasy MP (Labour Co-op) | Walthamstow | Hansard | ||
| 24 October 2011 | Dr Stella Creasy MP (Labour Co-op) | Walthamstow | → | Meg Hillier MP (Labour) | Hackney South and Shoreditch | Hansard | ||
| Rt Hon Anne McGuire MP (Labour) | Stirling | Fiona Mactaggart MP (Labour) | Slough | |||||
| 31 October 2011 | Justine Greening MP (Conservative) | Putney | → | Chloe Smith MP (Conservative) | Norwich North | Hansard | ||
| Year | Chairman | Party |
|---|---|---|
| 1861-63 | Sir Francis Tornhill Bearing | Liberal |
| 1864–1866 | Rt Hon Edward Pleydell Bouverie | Liberal |
| 1866 | Mr George Sclater-Booth | Conservative |
| 1867-68 | Mr Hugh C E Childers | Liberal |
| 1869 | Mr William Pollard Urquhart | Liberal |
| 1870-71 | Rt Hon George Ward Hunt | Conservative |
| 1872-73 | Mr George Sclater-Both | Conservative |
| 1874-76 | Rt Hon John George Dodson | Liberal |
| 1877–1880 | Lord Frederick Cavendish | Liberal |
| 1884-85 | Sir Henry Holland | Conservative |
| 1886 | Sir John Eldon Gorst | Conservative |
| 1887-88 | Sir John Lubbock | Liberal Unionist |
| 1889-92 | Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth | Liberal |
| 1893 | Mr Edmond Wodehouse | Liberal Unionist |
| 1894-95 | Sir Richard Temple | Conservative |
| 1896–1900 | Mr Arthur O'Connor | Irish National |
| 1901-05 | Rt Hon Sir Arthur Hayter | Liberal |
| 1906-08 | Rt Hon Victor Christian William Cavendish | Liberal Unionist |
| 1908-18 | Col Robert Williams | Unionist |
| 1919-20 | Rt Hon Sir Francis Dyke Acland | Liberal |
| 1921-22 | Mr Aneurin Williams | Liberal |
| 1923 | Mr Frederick William Jowett JP | Labour |
| 1924 | Lt Col Rt Hon Walter Edward Guinness | Conservative |
| 1924-29 | Rt Hon Willian Graham JP | Labour |
| 1929-31 | Mr Artur Michael Samuel | Conservative |
| 1931-38 | Mr Morgan Jones | Labour |
| 1938-41 | Rt Hon Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence | Labour |
| 1941-43 | Lt Col Rt Hon Walter Elliot | Unionist |
| 1943-45 | Lt Col Sir Assheton Pownall OBE TD | Unionist |
| 1946-48 | Rt Hon Osbert Peake | Conservative |
| 1948-50 | Mr Ralph Assheton | Conservative |
| 1950-51 | 1, Sir Ronald Cross; 2, Rt Hon Charles Waterhouse | Conservative |
| 1951-52 | Mr Lewis John Edwards | Labour |
| 1952-59 | Sir George Benson | Labour |
| 1959-63 | Rt Hon Harold Wilson | Labour |
| 1963-64 | Rt Hon ALN Douglas Houghton | Labour |
| 1964-70 | Rt Hon John Boyd-Carpenter | Conservative |
| 1970-73 | Rt Hon Harold Lever | Labour |
| 1972-73 | Rt Hon Edmund Dell Acting due to Lever's illness | Labour |
| 1974-79 | Rt Hon Edward DuCann | Conservative |
| 1979-83 | Rt Hon Joel Barnett | Labour |
| 1983-97 | Rt Hon Robert Sheldon | Labour |
| 1997–2001 | Rt Hon David Davis | Conservative |
| 2001-10 | Mr Edward Leigh | Conservative |
| 2010–present | Rt Hon Margaret Hodge | Labour |