Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Develop credible plan to produce audited accounts before summer parliamentary recess by September 2025.
Conclusion
We are disappointed by the Department’s continued failure to return to publishing its accounts before the summer Parliamentary recess. Timely production of accounts is essential to understanding public finances and supporting accountability and Parliament expects Departments’ accounts to be published before the summer recess each year. Yet the Department has failed to deliver its accounts on time for each of the last five years, which hampers effective and timely accountability of taxpayers’ money. The Department is making some progress and published its 2023–24 accounts on 17 December 2024, nearly six weeks earlier than its 2022–23 accounts. But this is still five months later than the timescale needed to meet the expected pre–summer recess delivery. Weaknesses in basic financial accounting at UKHSA, together with delays in the completion of local NHS audits have continued to cause the accounts to be late. The absorption of NHS England into the department will need to be carefully planned in the accounts production and auditing process, otherwise timelines could slip backwards. recommendation By the start of September 2025, the Department must write to us with a realistic and credible plan to produce audited accounts before the summer Parliamentary recess. This must include how it will: • Effectively support and hold group bodies to account to ensure they produce accounts of appropriate quality on a timely basis; and • Work with stakeholders across the local audit system to build capacity, resilience and ensure deadlines are met in particular given organisational changes.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and is working on a multi-year plan to publish audited accounts before the summer recess, acknowledging challenges due to private sector audit firm capacity. It commits to writing to the Committee in September 2025 with further details on this plan, associated risks, and actions being taken to address them.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendations. previously detailed a multi-year plan with the aim of returning laying its ARA before the summer parliamentary recess, by bringing forward publication by at least one month each year. This plan balances the department’s commitment to accelerating the timetable with the key dependency on private sector audit firms to undertake the audits of NHS providers and integrated care systems. Private sector audit firms have indicated very clearly to the department and the regulator (the Financial Reporting Council, FRC) that they do not currently have the capacity to complete robust, quality audits of NHS organisations quickly enough to support a return to pre-recess laying in the shorter-term. The department is continuing to work closely with key stakeholders across the local audit system, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, HM Treasury, the National Audit Office, FRC and firms themselves, to build capacity and resilience in the system and ensure deadlines are met. The department will write to the Committee in September 2025 with further detail on its multi-year plan, the risks to it, and the action the department is taking to address those risks to the greatest extent possible.