Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 17
First Report - Financial Reporting and Audit in Local Authorities
Published 24 Nov 2023
Paragraph 80
Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Financial Reporting and Audit in Local Authorities All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Department must introduce backstop dates for publishing audited local authority accounts on an annual basis going forwards. The Department must also ensure that, if an authority and its auditors do not collectively produce audited accounts by the backstop date in a given year, then the Section 151 Officer of the authority (and other responsible individuals such as the auditor’s Key Audit Partner) must immediately write to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to us, and to the authority’s council to explain why the audit could not be completed. The relevant recipients of the correspondence from the Section 151 Officer should then pursue any follow-up action as is necessary. The introduction of these backstop dates should be done alongside the Department’s implementation of its statement of proposals to clear the backlog, with a suitable annual backstop date chosen by the end of the calendar year.
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, First Report - Financial Reporting and Audit in Local Authorities (HC 59), paragraph 80, 24 November 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 5 February 2024 (deadline 24 January 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and gives a differentiated response across its 14 recommendations, agreeing with or committing to consider several while stating that clearing the audit backlog is its immediate priority and that it does not support one.
- On backlog, the government says its proposals include an initial backstop date of 30 September 2024 for all outstanding local audits up to and including 2022-23, "subject to consultation in early February".
- On a new local audit body (Recommendation 6), the government's view is that "a new arm’s length body is not necessary" and a system leader should instead be appointed from within the current system.
- On value for money (Recommendation 12), the government states "We do not support this recommendation", saying auditors are "not currently equipped" to comment on specific services, projects or programmes.
- On a standardised statement of service information and costs (Recommendation 10), it remains "committed to the prospect" but says introducing it now would add a requirement while clearing the backlog is the priority.