Recommendation 25

PSAA recently commissioned research into the market for auditing local authorities which found challenges and barriers to audit firms looking to come into the market. New firms have to invest in their staff over time to build the specialist knowledge and accreditation needed to carry out audits. A member of staff who leads an audit must also gain individual accreditation to become a key audit partner.69 EY added that key audit partners must have at least three years’ experience of oversight of delivering audits within this market.70 The Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) also felt that the requirements on key audit partners acted as a barrier to new entrants, even where audit firms did have audit partners with the experience that would make them eligible to apply.71