Horizon: Compensation and Convictions Debate
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Lord Palmer of Childs Hill
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Horizon: Compensation and Convictions
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Excerpts(10 months, 2 weeks ago)
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The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrat Benches.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, following on from what the Minister said, could he explain the role of the audit committees, at any level, and the National Audit Office? Where were they in this scandal? There are audit committees and they had a role to play. The elementary precaution used by all firms of accountants is that, when a new system is put in place, you run a parallel system for a few months to make sure there are no errors. Why was that not done?
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
The noble Lord is absolutely right to raise these points. This is what the Williams inquiry will be looking at in fine detail. My understanding of the situation is that there was no shortage of committees all over this terrible saga, but there was a shortage of good judgment, inquiring minds, sympathy and common sense. These questions will all be answered. They need to be run through the Williams committee, and we need to know the answers to all of these. I know that he will do his work in great detail.