Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Deferred
Many NHS bodies missed audit deadlines, requiring urgent timetable advancements and UKHSA improvements.
Recommendation
NHS England set a deadline of 28 June 2024 for the completion of the financial audits of NHS Commissioners and NHS Providers. Almost a fifth (18.0%) of NHS Providers and a tenth (9.5%) of NHS Commissioners missed the 28 June 2024 deadline.53 The previous Committee called on the Department to strengthen its governance and financial controls and set out a clear plan to restore timely accountability across its group and improve its financial reporting.54 The C&AG reported that the Department’s timetable for completion of the NHS provider and ICB audits will need to be significantly advanced, and the remaining weaknesses in the UKHSA control environment will need to be addressed, to meet its target of a pre–summer recess sign–off by 2026–27.55
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to strengthen governance and financial controls to restore timely accountability and improve financial reporting, outlining a multi-year plan to incrementally bring forward publication of its Annual Report and Accounts, with further details to be provided in September 2025.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
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.