Recommendation 16

We welcome the commitment of the then-Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government and Building Safety to address the causes of delays in the local audit system. While the lack of an annual statutory deadline is not itself a cause of delays, the lack of any consequences for local authorities and auditors for delayed delivery may have contributed to the current backlog of delayed audits. Annual deadlines with suitable consequences for failure to deliver might have prevented the accumulation of the backlog and the destructive cycle of delay that has led to this current crisis.