Comptroller and Auditor General
Mr. Speaker
Before calling the Prime Minister to move the motion on the appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General, I should inform the House that I am not able to select the amendment in the name of the hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Garrett) and many other hon. Members. This is a proceeding in pursuance of an Act of Parliament, and the terms of the motion must be strictly confined to the limited subject matter of the proposed address to Her Majesty. However, the method of the appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General is obviously a relevant consideration, and I am prepared to permit debate to range over the subject matter of the amendment as well as the main question.
10 pm
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
I beg to move,
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that Her Majesty will appoint John Bryant Bourn Esquire, C.B., to the Office of Comptroller and Auditor General.
I begin tonight by endorsing the tribute paid by the right hon. Gentleman the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the PAC debate last week to the retiring Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir Gordon Downey. He has performed this exacting task with distinction for the past six years, and the House has cause to be grateful to him.
The procedure for the appointment of the new Comptroller and Auditor General is laid down in the National Audit Act 1983. We have followed that procedure minutely, as the House would expect.
The name in the motion before the House, which has the agreement of the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Mr. Sheldon), is that of Mr. John Bourn. Mr. Bourn has served in a wide range of posts in the Ministry of Defence and at senior level in the Northern Ireland Office. He is eminently qualified to assume the post of Comptroller and Auditor General, and the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and I have every confidence that he will be a worthy servant of the Committee and of this House.