Part 1: The Bank of England Section 11: Examinations and reviews
This section inserts new sections 7D, 7E, 7F, 7G and 7H into the 1998 Act. These give the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Treasury power to initiate value for money studies of the Bank (the Comptroller and Auditor General of the whole Bank, including its subsidiaries and in certain circumstances other Bank companies, and the Treasury of the Bank's PRA functions). Under new section 7D the Comptroller and Auditor General has power to carry out value for money studies of any functions of the Bank (after consulting the court of directors of the Bank) and report to Parliament on the results. This does not give the Comptroller and Auditor General power to question the Bank's policy objectives or to consider the merits of policy decisions taken by the FPC, the MPC or the PRC. In addition, the Comptroller and Auditor General may not examine the merits of policy decisions on the supervision of financial market infrastructure (such as payment or settlement systems or clearing houses) taken by the body within the Bank responsible for the Bank's supervision of financial market infrastructure. Nor may the Comptroller and Auditor General consider the merits of policy decisions relating to resolution taken by the body responsible for the exercise of the Bank's resolution functions. However, where the Bank has used its powers under the 2009 Act, or Part 6 of the 2013 Act (which provides for special administration for infrastructure companies) to resolve a bank or other financial institution the Comptroller and Auditor General may consider any policy decision on resolution which is relevant to the resolution of that institution. New section 7E makes provision for a Memorandum of Understanding between the Bank and the Comptroller and Auditor General, to set out the procedure for resolving disputes between them, and to identify functions which the Comptroller and Auditor General would not usually wish to examine.
	Under new section 7F the Treasury is given power to commission an independent value for money study of the way in which the Bank carries out its functions as PRA. This provision replaces section 2O of FSMA (which contained a similar provision for the Treasury to commission reviews of the PRA when it was a subsidiary of the Bank) which is being repealed by the Act.
	New section 7G ensures that the Comptroller and Auditor General, and any person asked by the Treasury to carry out a value for money study, has access to the documents and information they reasonably need to see to enable them to do the study.
	New section 7H ensures that any information which the Comptroller and Auditor General or the National Audit Office receives from the Bank during the course of such an examination (or otherwise) which relates to monetary policy, the Bank's financial support operations or the provision of private banking services, must be treated as specially protected information and may not be disclosed.