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The Public Accounts Commission is a UK body created under the National Audit Act 1983 to audit the National Audit Office, i.e., to watch the watchers. [1] [2]
Commission reports are available to the public. [3]
The Commission comprises nine MPs, including the Leader of the House of Commons and the Chair of the Public Accounts Select Committee, who serve ex officio. The remaining seven, who may not be Ministers of the Crown, are chosen by the House of Commons. [1] The Commission elects its chair from among its numbers. Members continue to serve despite a dissolution of Parliament, but - excepting the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee - are required to resign if they are not standing or are defeated for re-election. [4] A list of current members is available on the UK Parliament website. [5]
As of May 2024 [update] , the membership consisted of 7 MPs; however, four of these lost their Parliament seats in the 2024 United Kingdom general election. [6]
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as members of Parliament (MPs), who are elected to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The three parts acting together to legislate may be described as the King-in-Parliament. The Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which, by legislation and convention, operates as a unitary parliamentary democracy. A hereditary monarch, currently King Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Sir Keir Starmer since 2024, serves as the elected head of government.
The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community.
Sir Julian Murray Lewis is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Forest East since 1997. Lewis has served as Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) since 2020, succeeding Dominic Grieve.
Dame Margaret Olivia Hillier, known as Meg Hillier, is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney South and Shoreditch since 2005. Hillier was a junior government minister from 2007 until 2010 and was succeeded by Caroline Flint as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Labour Party October 2011 reshuffle. She has been the chair of the Treasury Select Committee since 2024, having previously chaired the Public Accounts Committee from 2015 to 2024.
The National Audit Office (NAO) is an independent Parliamentary body in the United Kingdom which is responsible for auditing central government departments, government agencies and non-departmental public bodies. The NAO also carries out value for money (VFM) audits into the administration of public policy.
In the United Kingdom, the Electoral Commission is the national election commission, created in 2001 as a result of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. It is an independent agency that regulates party and election finance and sets standards for how elections should be run.
In British politics, parliamentary select committees are cross-party groups of MPs or Lords which investigate specific issues or scrutinise the work of the Government of the United Kingdom.
The Committee of Public Accounts is a select committee of the British House of Commons. It is responsible for overseeing government expenditures, and to ensure they are effective and honest. The committee is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in government financial operations, having been described by Professor the Lord Hennessy as "the queen of the select committees...[which] by its very existence exert[s] a cleansing effect in all government departments".
The reform of the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, has been a topic of discussion in UK politics for more than a century. Multiple governments have attempted reform, beginning with the introduction of the Parliament Act 1911 by the incumbent Liberal Government. When the Labour Party came to power in the 1997 general election, the Blair government passed the House of Lords Act 1999. On 7 November 2001 the government undertook a public consultation. This helped to create a public debate on the issue of Lords reform, with 1,101 consultation responses and numerous debates in Parliament and the media. However, no consensus on the future of the upper chamber emerged.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administration and expenditure of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its associated agencies and public bodies. The Clerks of the Committee are Previn Desai and Joanna Dodd.
The Welsh Affairs Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Wales Office, as well as relations with the Senedd. The members of the committee are usually Welsh MPs.
The House of Commons Treasury Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The committee is responsible for examining and scrutinizing the expenditure, administration and policy of HM Treasury. This includes its agencies and associated bodies, including HM Revenue and Customs, the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Royal Mint.
The Scottish Affairs Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland, and relations with the Scottish Parliament. It also looks at the administration and expenditure of the Advocate General for Scotland.
The Education Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Education and any associated public bodies.
The basic annual salary of a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons is £91,346, plus expenses, from April 2024. In addition, MPs are able to claim allowances to cover the costs of running an office and employing staff, and maintaining a constituency residence or a residence in London. Additional salary is paid for appointments or additional duties, such as ministerial appointments, being a whip, chairing a select committee or chairing a Public Bill committee.
The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections, mayoral elections, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may also be by-elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday, and under the provisions of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 the timing of general elections can be held at the discretion of the prime minister during any five-year period. All other types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. The five electoral systems used are: the single member plurality system (first-past-the-post), the multi-member plurality, the single transferable vote, the additional member system, and the supplementary vote.
The House of Commons Commission is the overall supervisory body of the House of Commons administration in the United Kingdom. The commission is a corporate body established by the House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978. The commission continues to exist during the dissolution period and the person who was Speaker continues in office as a member of the commission until a speaker is chosen by the new parliament.