Let us start with the constitutional basics. Parliament has the statutory right to understand how the money it has provided to government, through the Supply and Appropriation processes, is being spent. More specifically, that the money is both used for its approved purpose and in such a way as to achieve value for money. This underlies the ‘accounting officer' (AO) responsibilities held by permanent secretaries and their equivalents in arm's-length and other government bodies, as set out in HM Treasury's publication Managing Public Money.
Parliament's scrutiny can take different forms – most obviously through the work of my organisation, the National Audit Office and select committees such as the Committee of Public Accounts – using evidence from those AOs. In turn, AOs' own assurance of the evidence they provide can come through various channels, such as the work of regulators and inspectors, section 151 assurance that grant conditions have been met, collection of key performance indicators and so forth.
