{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/scotland-act-1998-transitory-and-transitional-provisions-finance-order-1999/article-17",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/scotland-act-1998-transitory-and-transitional-provisions-finance-order-1999/article-17.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1999/441",
  "legislation_title": "The Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Finance) Order 1999",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/scotland-act-1998-transitory-and-transitional-provisions-finance-order-1999",
  "path": "article/17",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "17",
  "heading": "Accounts and audit of expenditure of Secretary of State, Lord Advocate etc.",
  "text": "(1) The Secretary of State, the Lord Advocate, and other persons to whom sums are paid out of the Fund shall prepare such accounts of their expenditure and receipts in the transitional financial year as the Treasury may direct and in such form and manner as the Treasury may direct.\n(2) Separate such accounts shall be prepared for expenditure and receipts for the period ending immediately before the principal appointed day (referred to in this article as “pre-devolution accounts”) and for expenditure and receipts for the remaining period of the transitional financial year.\n(3) The directions which the Treasury may give under paragraph (1) of this article include, in particular, directions as to–\n(a) the transactions to which the accounts are to relate;\n(b) the information to be contained in the accounts and the manner in which it is to be presented;\n(c) the methods and principles in accordance with which the accounts are to be prepared; and\n(d) the additional information (if any) that is to accompany the accounts\nand any such direction may have the effect of allowing or requiring any receipt or category of receipt otherwise payable into the Fund to be accounted for in such a way or on such a basis that it need not be paid into the Fund.\n(4) In so far as paragraph (1) applies to the Secretary of State, it shall be taken to require the preparation by him only of pre-devolution accounts of expenditure and receipts in connection with his relevant functions.\n(5) An account prepared under this article shall be sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General not later than the end of November in the year 2000, and he shall examine, certify and report on the account and he shall lay copies of it and of his report on it before the Parliament unless it is a pre-devolution account, in which case he shall lay copies of it and of his report on it before each House of Parliament.\n(6) In examining any accounts sent to him under this article, the Comptroller and Auditor General shall, in particular, satisfy himself–\n(a) that the expenditure to which the accounts relate has been incurred lawfully and in accordance with the authority which governs it; and\n(b) that money paid to the person by whom the accounts are prepared for a particular purpose or particular purposes has not been applied otherwise than for that purpose or those purposes.\n(7) For the purposes of his examination of any accounts under this article, the Comptroller and Auditor General–\n(a) shall have a right of access at all reasonable times to all the documents relating to the accounts of the person by whom they are prepared; and\n(b) shall be entitled to require from any person holding or accountable for any of those documents any assistance, information or explanation which he reasonably thinks necessary for those purposes.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/441/article/17",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:00:22.228177+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}