Records of the Accountant General's Department and Finance Branch

Records of the Accountant General's Department and Finance Branch relating to general financial policy and educational expenditure, including the administration of grants to local education authorities.

Registered files of the Finance Branch from 1968 are in ED 261. General finance files are in ED 100

Records of the Pooling Committee relating to the redistribution of local education authority expenditure are in ED 198 Records of committees which considered public expenditure are in ED 283

The department's influence is reflected in all series of records in which the financial implications of policy were discussed, notably: ED 13 ED 120 ED 10 ED 11 ED 12

• Board of Education, Accountant General's Department, 1903-1944
• Department of Education and Science, Accountant General's Department, 1964-1968
• Department of Education and Science, Finance Branch, 1968-1992
• Ministry of Education, Accountant General's Department, 1957-1964
• Ministry of Education, Finance Branch, 1944-1957

A separate Finance Department under an Accountant General was set up in 1903 with general responsibility for the Board of Education's expenditure and vote accountancy. The department had no direct interest in educational policy, but its responsibility for estimates gave it considerable influence over the formulation and execution of policy, especially after the Education Act 1918. After the 1944 Education Act the department was renamed the Finance Branch, though it had reverted to its original title by 1957.

The new Finance Branch, set up in 1968 when the post of Accountant General was abolished, took over the responsibility for all financial matters previously carried out by the Accountant General's Department, and those functions containing a financial element from Establishment and Organisation Branch. These included responsibilities for finance policy and procedure, parliamentary estimates, local authority capital expenditure, consultation with the Treasury, advice on local authority expenditure on educational matters, and grants for arts, museums and galleries.