Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 12
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)
We asked the Treasury what its plan was for achieving timeliness as well as removing of the disclaimer opinion from the WGA’s accounts, and how it would achieve both at once. The Treasury told us that there was a rapid rise in missing bodies from 2019 to last year, where local authorities were 21 WGA0001 22 Q 8 23 Letter from the Permanent Secretary concerning local audit backlogs, 5 March 2025 24 Letter from HM Treasury to Committee of Public Accounts, 29 November 2024, WGA 2022–23 pp29–30 25 Q 16 11 struggling to deliver accounts. COVID disruption was noted as a significant factor in the delays, and now the government wants to prioritise the timeliness of WGA and get back to the pre–COVID position.26
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.