Home > Support to Parliament > Committee of Public Accounts

Committee of Public Accounts

Our relationship with the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) is central to the role of serving Parliament – a relationship going back some 150 years.

PAC has 16 members and is always chaired by a member of the Opposition.

The Committee is charged with examining the accounts of bodies that have been voted funds by Parliament. In practice this means holding sessions to take evidence on approximately 50 value for money (VFM) examinations and other reports produced by the NAO each year.

The PAC take evidence from the relevant Accounting Officer of the Government department or other public body who is the person designated by the Treasury as having responsibility for the management of public funds in their organisation and other senior governmental officials.

The PAC then issue their own report. By convention, the Government must reply to the Committee's recommendations within two months.

The C&AG seeks the views of the Committee each year on the proposed programme of VFM examinations to be carried out in the coming year, and areas under consideration for examination in the following year.

Most recent VFM programme

More details on the Committee’s history, publications and meetings can be found on the Parliament site.