Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 30
30
Acknowledged
Department's 2023–24 accounts published five months late, facing significant timetable challenges.
Conclusion
The Department published its 2023–24 accounts on 17 December 2024, five months after the summer Parliamentary recess deadline. The Department has reported that there continues to be significant challenges in bringing the laying of its accounts back to a pre–summer recess timetable.50
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation and highlights its existing multi-year plan to return to a pre-recess timetable, stating it will provide further details on the plan and risks to the Committee in September 2025.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendations. Target implementation date: September 2025 5.2 As explained to the Committee at the hearing of 13 March 2024, the department has 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. 5.3 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. 5.4 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.