Recommendation 17

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.