SIR ALAN HARDCASTLE

SPENDING three decades of his career as a highly successful accountant with Peat Marwick McLintock, Sir Alan Hard - castle made his greatest professional con - tributions after his mid-fifties . He advanced radical reforms of Whitehall accounting methods, and then helped to bring clearer regulation to Lloyd's of Lon - don . From 1998 he chaired the Board of Banking Supervision, the body monitor - ing banking stability. He was still at the latter post when his final illness cut short his active career. Hardcastle joined the Treasury in 1989 in the recently created post of head of the Government's accountancy service. He had to co-ordinate specialist account - ants spread across every government department—a potentially tall order giv -

en their geographic dispersal and loyal - ties to their own departments. With a keen intellect and a graceful personal style that promoted teamwork among sometimes disparate colleagues, Hardcastle succeeded in this, and in up - dating the accounting methods. Since before Gladstone's era, Whitehall depart - ments had used only cost-accounting methods, which were described as "little more than cash books" to record outlays and income. Hardcastle introduced bal - ance sheets that would be recognisable in a private sector context, using resource accounting to spread capital expenditures over the total lifetime of projects involving fixed assets. The effect was to give MPs and the public a far bet - t er picture of long-term assets that are at the executive's disposal....