No report on what happens to money in court funds has been received by the Ministers for Justice and Finance for over 20 years, in defiance of the Rules of the Superior Courts, the Public Accounts Committee has been told.
There is currently £575 million in court funds.
These funds are made up of the assets of wards of court, which account for almost half the total, financial awards made to minors, which account for almost £200,000, lodgements by parties to court proceedings and equities and other funds.
Rule 96 of the Rules of the Superior Courts states that each March the accountant for the courts should prepare an annual account of the funds. The secretary general of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform told the committee in a letter that this account should be sent to the Minister for Justice and Minister for Finance.
"The Department has no record of having received such accounts for many years and is attempting to ascertain when or whether they were ever provided," the letter from Mr Tim Dalton said.
Mr Dalton told the committee that the Comptroller and Auditor General was specifically precluded by legislation from examining these funds, as they did not belong to the Exchequer, but were held by the courts for third parties.
Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, chief executive of the Courts Service, said he had had a discussion with the Comptroller and Auditor General about the matter and had commissioned the National Treasury Management Agency to examine it.
It produced a report containing a number of recommendations, including computerisation, expert advice on investment and the annual auditing of the funds.
These were in the process of being implemented, but there may be legislative problems, he said. He added that a report on the funds had now been completed and sent to the two relevant Ministers.
He said that there were 34,000 individual accounts involved, which had been handled manually. Computerisation would significantly improve the information available.
The chairman of the Committee, Mr Jim Mitchell, asked whether the Exchequer would be liable for any shortfall that might occur with these funds. If so, there should be accountability.
He proposed that a working group be set up to study the matter with the Departments of Finance and Justice, the Courts Service and the Attorney General's office, and that it should report back in three months, which was agreed.