Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 34
34
Deferred
Department aims for pre-summer accounts by 2026-27, contingent on local audit market capacity.
Recommendation
In September 2024, the Department told us that its aim was to lay its accounts in Parliament at least a month earlier each year and that its target was to reach a pre–summer recess laying for the 2026–27 financial year.57 Given the issues within local authority audit, we asked NHS England whether it was working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities 52 UKHSA Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 427, 16 December 2024, page 154–155; NHS England Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, page 178; Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts 2023/24, page 48 53 NHS England Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 251, 10 October 2024, page 124; Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts 2023/24, HC 399, 26 November 2024, page 45 54 Committee of Public Accounts, Thirty–First Report of Session 2023–24, Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 459, 29 April 2024, paragraph 3 55 Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 459, 29 April 2024, page 239 56 Qq 64–65 57 Treasury Minutes, Government Response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-sixth to the Twenty-ninth, the Thirty-first, and the Thirty-third to the Thirty-eighth reports from Session 2023–24, CP 1151, September 2024, page 16, paragraph 2.2. 22 and Local Government (MHCLG) to improve the position of local audit in future and help prevent delays. NHS England told us that it was working with MHCLG, the Department, and the NAO to make sure that future audit arrangements were sustainable for both the NHS and local authorities. The Department and NHS England told us they were closely linked to the MHCLG consultation process on reforms to the local audit market and that their views, concerns, and requirements had been taken into account. The Department emphasised, though, that moving towards pre–summer recess certification would require a sizable change in the capacity of the local audit market. NHS England told us, however, that there was no firm timeframe of w
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation to achieve timely laying of accounts and addresses the need to improve local audit, outlining a multi-year plan to incrementally bring forward publication, and will provide further details on this plan 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.