Edward Leigh

Leigh chaired the Public Accounts Committee from 2001 to 2010, the convention being that an opposition MP holds the post, and his committee produced hundreds of reports on value for money based on National Audit Office work. Its inquiries into the NHS IT programme, the Ministry of Defence's equipment overruns and the Rural Payments Agency's failures to pay farmers set the pattern for later PAC chairs. He was quieter on camera than his successor, but the volume and consistency of reports mattered.