The Public Accounts Committee scrutinises, on behalf of Parliament, the reasons public bodies (such as individual government departments) exceeded their allocated resources (see Standing Order No. 55(2) (d)). The Committee is required to report to the House when a public body has exceeded its allocated resource before this spend is retrospectively authorised by the House of Commons through the Parliamentary “Excess Votes” process. The Committee will report on an Excess Vote from 2022-23 to inform the House of Commons prior to the House considering the Motions to authorise public spending.
Excess vote process
Excess votes give retrospective authorisation for unauthorised departmental spending in the previous financial year. If a department exceeds the spending limits authorised by the House of Commons, the National Audit Office’s Comptroller and Auditor General makes a report to the Public Accounts Committee. The Committee examines the reason for the excess expenditure, and report its opinion to the House.
Once the Committee has reported to the House, the Treasury presents a statement of excess (usually alongside any supplementary estimates) which seeks the House’s approval for the excess spending. If the Public Accounts Committee reports that it sees no objection to the excess being authorised, the question is put to the House without debate.