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Select committee inquiry

Excess votes 2019-20

Closed

Public Accounts Committee · Opened 4 February 2021 · Closed 19 April 2021

Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

What the inquiry looked at

“Under Standing Order No. 55(2) (d), the Public Accounts Committee is required to report on any public bodies exceeding their allocated resources, which are retrospectively authorised through an “Excess Vote”. The Committee will report on the Excess Votes from 2018-19 and 2019-20 to inform the House of Commons prior to the House considering the Motions to authorise public spending.”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What the government said

The government responded on 3 September 2021.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.

The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation on each of the five excess breaches in 2019-20 and states that each recommendation has been implemented.

  • On the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government's breaches of its Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit and Net Cash Requirement, the government "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" that Parliament provide the additional resources by an Excess Vote.
  • The same position is stated for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (Resource Annually Managed Expenditure) and HM Revenue & Customs (Net Cash Requirement).
  • The government also agrees on the Home Office (Net Cash Requirement) and HM Treasury (Capital Annually Managed Expenditure) breaches.
  • HM Treasury has laid the Statement of Excesses 2019-20 and the Late Statement of Excesses 2018-19; the excesses are included in the Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Act 2021, which received Royal Assent on 15 March 2021.

Read the government's response ↗ Read the report ↗ Report an error

How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 4 February 2021 to 3 September 2021.

  1. Report 12 Feb 2021
  2. Government response 3 Sep 2021

What it recommended

The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in Forty-fourth Report - Excess Votes 2019–20 ↗ on parliament.uk.