The Background to Plowden

Richard Clarke and Alec Cairncross

Chapter 1 in Public Expenditure, Management and Control, 1978, pp 1-6 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The most convenient starting-point is the work of the Select Committee on Estimates on Treasury Control of Expenditure [H.C. 254, 1957–58]. This report, prepared under the chairmanship of Sir Godfrey Nicholson, was published in July 1958: it was based on four months’ questioning of Treasury and other witnesses and substantial written memoranda: and its general tenor was critical but not unfavourable to the Treasury ‘system’. The sting was in the tail: The aim of Your Committee was to find out whether the present ‘system’ of Treasury control is as effective as modern conditions demand. Your Committee cannot give a definite answer. The system appears to work reasonably well. But it would be idle to pretend that Your Committee is left entirely without disquiet … Because of all these doubts, and because of the constitutional significance of the subject, Your Committee have reached the conclusion that further enquiry, at once more detailed and more expert, is required. Accordingly they recommend that a small independent committee, which should have access to Cabinet papers, be appointed to report upon the theory and practice of Treasury control of expenditure.

Keywords: Gross Domestic Product; Public Expenditure; Select Committee; Economy Campaign; Constitutional Significance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1978
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-03738-4_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349037384

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-03738-4_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().