Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 11
16th Report - Whole of Government Accounts 2022-23
Published 19 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Whole of Government Accounts 2022-23 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The government legislated on 9 September 2024 to implement a series of statutory deadlines, or backstop dates, by which the audits of English Local Authority accounts must be complete. The first backstop date to complete audits of accounts relating to the 2022–23 financial year was set at 13 December 2024 and over 90% of English local authority accounts were published by this date, albeit often with disclaimed audit opinions.22 Subsequent to our evidence session MHCLG wrote to us and confirmed that approximately 95% of bodies had published audited accounts for 2022–23 by 13 December 2024, albeit that around 200 of them (approximately 45%) had disclaimed audit opinions.23 Further backstop dates are proposed for 2023–24 and beyond as follows: 2023–24 accounts are due by 28 February 2025; 2024–25 accounts are due by 28 February 2026; 2025–26 are due by 31 January 2027; 2026–27 are due by 30 November 2027; and 2027–28 are due by 30 November 2028.24 MHCLG aspires to have no disclaimed or qualified local authority accounts by the end of 2027–28. However, in the intervening years the expectation is that while the volume of missing data drops as audits are completed by the statutory backstop dates, this will result in an increase in the number of submissions that have limited or no audit assurance, as component auditors disclaim local authority accounts in order to meet the deadlines.25
From: Public Accounts Committee, 16th Report - Whole of Government Accounts 2022-23 (HC 367), 19 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixteenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixteenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 16 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six conclusions, but disagrees with two of the Committee's conclusions about the pace of local audit reform and MHCLG's oversight of local government.
- HM Treasury will write to the Committee within six months on missing and unaudited data, and "expects the level of missing data to reduce in 2024-25", though it "may take longer" before no audit opinions are disclaimed.
- The government "does not agree" that it has taken too long to put local audit plans in place, citing six statutory backstop dates announced in July 2024.
- The government "disagrees" that MHCLG lacks sufficient oversight of local government, stating that MHCLG uses modelling and other financial information to understand financial resilience.
- On accessibility, HM Treasury "will design a draft summary WGA pocketbook after WGA 2023-24 is published" and share an early draft with the Committee, while digitisation will only be considered once the WGA recovery plan is completed.