REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Published date | 01 September 1977 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1977.tb02444.x |
| Date | 01 September 1977 |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
CASH
LIMITS:
THE
REPORT
OF
THE
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE
BRITISH Constitutional Law is an elusive subject. Its importance
is beyond doubt, but lacking any basic law that can act as a focus
for consideration, it is hard to define, and often hardx still to
explain. Occasionally this imprecision leads lawyers to seek refuge in
a
body
of
case law that can be analysed by means of the techniques
familiar to them in other subjects, but there is no guarantee that
by concentrating
on
the areas that come before the courts the
urgent issues
of
the Constitution are discussed.’ This is particularly
true in the case of the sovereignty of Parliament. Wilson has noted
two distinct meanings
of
the term
2;
first that of the legislative
supremacy of Parliament, and secondly its pre-eminence in the
constitutional structure, and suggests that lawyers have ignored the
second meaning, concentrating instead on amassing a large body
of
knowledge-or minutiae-on the complex case law that considers
the first meaning. To attempt to study Parliament as the central
constitutional institution with even
a
cursory glance at history is to
become convinced that, at least since Stuart times, the control
of
government expenditure is crucial to understanding Parliament’s
function. Within that context-and without any tendention-a short
report by a Committee of the House
of
Commons on
a
technical
aspect of financial management is an important benchmark.
The aggregate, distribution and control
of
public expenditure are
major topics of public concern. Schools
of
academics dispute its
role in the economy, and social theories are predicated upon its size
and function.
In
each
of
the last two years the Government has
suffered a revolt at the time of the debate on the Public Expendi-
ture White Paper, and the uprisings were not less interesting for
their possible symbolism. The Public Accounts Committee
(P.A.C.)
report is concerned with an aspect of the control of public expendi-
ture and raises
a
series of fundamental problems for the future
development of the British Constitution, but before the report is
analysed, it is as well to briefly explain the subject-matter.
in
1961
the planning and control of
public expenditure has proceeded by means
of
an annual costing
of public policies over
a
five-year span.5 The plans of spending
departments are discussed in bilateral negotiations with the Treasury,
1
Here
I
follow Wilson,
Cases
and
Materials
in
Constitutional and Administrative
Law
(2nd
ed.),
v-ix.
2
Ibid.
225-227.
:I
Cash Limits: The 3rd Report
of
the Public Accounts Committee for
1977-78,
4
Control
of
Public Expenditure, Cmnd.
1432.
5
By far the most informative account
of
the
whole
process is Heclo and
Since the Plowden Report
H.C.
274.
Wildavsky,
The
Private Government
of
Public
Money.
569
VOL.
40
(5)
3
(1)
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