Accounting Officer

HM Treasury's Managing Public Money states that every organisation in central government — department, agency, trading fund, NHS body, non-departmental public body or arm's length body — "must have an Accounting Officer" and that this person is "usually its senior official". The Treasury appoints the permanent head of each central government department as its Principal Accounting Officer, who in turn normally appoints the permanent heads of executive agencies and other arm's-length bodies as accounting officers for those bodies. Formally, the Accounting Officer is the person Parliament calls to account for stewardship of the organisation's resources.

The Accounting Officer takes personal responsibility for a defined set of standards, including that the organisation must "operate with propriety and regularity in all its transactions" and secure "value for money and feasibility" by systematically evaluating procurement, projects and programmes. A department's published Statement of Accounting Officer's Responsibilities confirms this covers "responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the public finances for which the Accounting Officer is answerable, for keeping proper records and for safeguarding the department's assets". The Accounting Officer must personally sign the accounts, the annual report and the governance statement, and — where a course of action directed by ministers conflicts with these standards — may be required to seek a formal ministerial direction before proceeding.