The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

is the government official responsible for supervising the quality of public accounting and financial reporting. The C&AG is an officer of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

who is the head of the National Audit Office, the body that scrutinises

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

expenditure. Under the

Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 The Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 (c. 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provides a statutory footing for the already-established Office for Budget Responsibility, and requires the treasury to set out i ...

the C&AG is appointed by the monarch by

letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...

upon an address of the House of Commons presented by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

with the agreement of the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. The C&AG can be removed from office, also by the monarch, only upon an address of both Houses of Parliament. The full title of the office is ''Comptroller General of the Receipt and Issue of Her Majesty's Exchequer and Auditor General of Public Accounts''. The current C&AG is Gareth Davies (not the MP).

History

The office of C&AG was created by the

Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 is the UK Act of Parliament under which most of the revenue from taxation, and all other money payable to the Exchequer, must be paid into the Consolidated Fund. The act "established a cycle of account ...

, which combined the functions of the

Comptroller General of the Exchequer The Comptroller General of the Exchequer was a position in the Exchequer of HM Treasury between 1834 and 1866. The Comptroller General had responsibility for authorising the issue of public monies from the Treasury to government departments. The po ...

, who had authorised the issue of public monies from the Treasury to other government departments, with those of the

Commissioners of Audit The Commissioners of Audit had responsibility from 1785 to 1866 for the auditing of public accounts in the United Kingdom. History In 1785 a ''Commission for Auditing the Public Accounts'' was established by statute, replacing the Auditors of the ...

, who had presented the government accounts to the Treasury). Under the terms of the Act the C&AG continued to authorise the issue of money to departments, but was also given the new task of examining departmental accounts and reporting the results to Parliament. The role has since been replicated in many Commonwealth and foreign countries.

List of Comptrollers and Auditors General

* 1867 -

Sir William Dunbar, 7th Baronet Sir William Dunbar, 7th Baronet (2 March 1812 – 17 December 1889) was a Scottish Liberal Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. Life He was born on 2 March 1812 the son of James Dunbar and his wife, Anna Catharina van Reed d'Oud ...

* 1888 - Sir

Charles Lister Ryan Sir Charles Lister Ryan (30 September 1831 – 20 November 1920) was a British civil servant. He served as Comptroller and Auditor-General of the Exchequer from 1888 until his retirement in 1896. Life He was born in St John's, Worcester,'' ...

* 1896 - Richard Mills * 1900 - Douglas Close Richmond * 1904 - Sir John Arrow Kempe * 1911 - Sir Henry James Gibson * 1921 - Sir Malcolm Graham Ramsay * 1931 - Sir Gilbert Charles Upcott * 1946 - Sir

Frank Newton Tribe Sir Frank Newton Tribe KCB, KBE (15 July 1893 – 20 June 1958) was an English civil servant who served as Comptroller and Auditor General. Early life and education Tribe was born in Bristol, the only son of chartered accountant Frank Newton Tri ...

* 1958 - Sir

Edmund Compton Sir Edmund Gerald Compton GCB KBE (30 July 1906 – 11 March 1994) was a civil servant and the first Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration. Early life and family Compton was born to Edmund Compton, involved in South American trade, ...

* 1966 - Sir Bruce Fraser * 1971 - Sir

David Pitblado Sir David Bruce Pitblado KCB CVO (18 August 1912 – 9 July 1997) was a principal private secretary to the office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Serving from 1951 to 1956, he was associated with Prime Ministers Clement Attlee, Win ...

* 1976 - Sir Douglas Henley * 1981 - Sir

Gordon Downey Sir Gordon Stanley Downey (26 April 1928 – 12 April 2022) was Britain's first Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards was set up by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in ...

* 1988 - Sir

John Bourn Sir John Bryant Bourn (21 February 1934 – 22 November 2022) was a British auditor who was the Comptroller and Auditor General and therefore a head of the National Audit Office. Early life and education Bourn was born in Hornsey, London, on ...

* 2008 - Tim Burr * 2009 - Sir

Amyas Morse Amyas Charles Edward Morse, Baron Morse, (born 28 June 1949) is a British politician and interim chair of the Office for Local Government. Between 2009 and 2019 he was the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office, an indep ...

* 2019 - Gareth Davies

Devolved administrations

Wales

The

Auditor General for Wales The Auditor General for Wales is the public official in charge of the Wales Audit Office, the body responsible for auditing the Welsh Government, its public bodies, National Health Service bodies and local government in Wales. The Auditor General f ...

is the public official in charge of

Audit Wales Audit Wales (), formally the Wales Audit Office (WAO, ), is an independent public body which was established by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; , formerly the National Assembly for Wales) on 1 April 2005. It has overall responsibility for auditing on ...

, the body responsible for auditing the

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( cy, Llywodraeth Cymru) is the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of ministers and Minister (government), deputy ministers, and also of a Counsel General for Wales, counsel general. Minist ...

and £20 billion of taxpayers' money each year. It is a statutory appointment made by Her Majesty the Queen, in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 8 to the

Government of Wales Act 2006 The Government of Wales Act 2006 (c 32) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the then-National Assembly for Wales (now the Senedd) and allows further powers to be granted to it more easily. The Act creates a system o ...

Scotland

The first

Auditor General for Scotland The Auditor General for Scotland (AGS) is the public official in charge of the Audit Scotland, the body responsible for auditing most of Scotland's public bodies, except local authorities. The Auditor General oversees the scrutiny of how publi ...

was Robert Black, who was appointed in February 2000. The post had since been held by Caroline Gardner (July 2012 to July 2020) and Stephen Boyle.

Northern Ireland

The

Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in the United Kingdom is the government official responsible for supervising the quality of public accounting and financial reporting. The C&AG is an officer of the House of Commons who is the head of th ...

is the head of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO), with responsibility for public audit in Northern Ireland.
Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland
' accessed 4 March 2015

Other Comptrollers and Auditors General

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের মহা হিসাব নিরীক্ষক ও নিয়ন্ত্রক এর কার্যালয়) ( C&AG) is the Supr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Comptroller and Auditor General of India The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the supreme audit institution of India, established under Article 148 of the Constitution of India. They are empowered to audit all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the S ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Comptroller and Auditor General (Ireland) The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) ( ga, An tArd-Reachtaire Cuntas agus Ciste) is the constitutional officer responsible for public audit in Ireland. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General is the public audit body for the Republ ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

Auditor-General of Ghana The Auditor-General of Ghana is the head of the Ghana Audit Service, a legislative branch agency re-established by the government of Ghana in 1992 through the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. It was established as part of the Audit Service through Artic ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Controller and Auditor-General of New Zealand The Controller and Auditor-General (the Auditor-General) is an Officer of the New Zealand Parliament responsible for auditing public bodies. John Ryan began his seven-year term as Controller and Auditor-General on 2 July 2018. The Deputy Controll ...

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comptroller And Auditor General * Government audit Officers of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Management occupations Comptroller