To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) whether, as a condition of granting the supervisory status to accountancy bodies, he will require that the minutes of their policy-making committees be available to any member of the public;(2) whether, as a condition of the supervisory status, he will require the councils of the accountancy bodies to meet in the open;(3) whether, as a condition of granting the supervisory status to accountancy bodies, he will require that the minutes of the council meetings be available to all members of that body.

The Secretary of State has no power to impose such conditions. His function is to determine whether applications for recognition meet the criteria laid down in the Companies Act 1989. In any case, the publicity to be given to meetings of this kind is a matter for the bodies themselves.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will seek to introduce legislation to require any accountancy firm auditing a public limited company to file information with a designated authority.

We have no such plans. However, I expect that the applications for recognition from supervisory bodies for auditors under the Companies Act 1989 will include requirements as to the filing of information with them by audit firms.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether, as a condition of granting the supervisory status to accountancy bodies, he will require that the minutes of their policy-making committees be available to all members.

The Secretary of State has no power to impose such a condition. His function is to determine whether applications for recognition meet the criteria laid down in the companies Act 1989. In any case, the question of whether minutes of its policy-making committees should be made available to all its members is one for the body itself to decide.