Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Return to publishing departmental group accounts by a pre-summer recess deadline with a clear timetable.
Conclusion
The Department’s continued failure to deliver its accounts to an earlier timetable hampers effective and timely accountability of taxpayers’ money. Weaknesses in basic financial accounting at UKHSA, together with delays in the completion of local NHS audits, and a lack of resilience in the local audit market, meant the Department could not publish its 2022–23 group accounts until 25 January 2024, 10 months after the financial year-end. The Department set a deadline of 30 June 2023 for the completion of the financial audits of 212 NHS providers and 148 NHS commissioners. Almost a quarter (23%) of NHS providers and more than a fifth (21%) of NHS commissioners missed the 30 June 2023 deadline. By the end of October 2023, 4.2% of NHS provider and 9.5% of NHS commissioner audits were still ongoing. Timely production of accounts is essential to understanding public finances and supporting accountability. The Department’s plans to return to a pre- summer recess timetable are becoming less and less ambitious. It has committed to advancing its timetable by one month each year, one month per year slower than when we examined its 2021–22 accounts. This would mean it would take until 2029 to achieve a pre-summer recess publication of its accounts, compared to the 2025– 26 financial year it previously committed to. Recommendation 2: The Department must return to publishing its accounts to a pre-summer recess deadline and set out a timetable to achieve this. To do this, the Department must: • support and hold to account group bodies to ensure timely accounts production; • work effectively with the auditors of local NHS bodies to ensure audit deadlines are met; and 6 Department of Health and Social Care2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts • work across government, to build resilience in the local audit system.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and targets a return to pre-summer recess laying for its Annual Report and Accounts by the 2026-27 financial year, with a specific plan to lay the 2023-24 accounts by early December 2024. It is also actively engaging with stakeholders to address local audit system capacity issues.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. year plan which aims to bring forward the publication of its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) by at least one month per year and targets a return to pre-summer recess laying for the 2026- 27 financial year. For 2023-24 audit, the Department has jointly agreed with the NAO that C&AG certification should be planned for the end of November 2024 and laying before Parliament in early December 2024, which would be nearly two months earlier than the 2022- 23 accounts were laid. The department is actively engaging with key stakeholders across government and externally to address the ongoing capacity issues in the local audit system. Addressing these issues is critical to bringing forward the laying date of the ARA. In addition to audit firm capacity, the regulatory environment in which audit firms operate is creating further pressure on timetables as requirements on audit firms continue to increase. Noting that these challenges are not wholly within the control of the department to resolve, the achievement of pre-summer recess laying of the ARA will be challenging and there is no realistic prospect of this in the short term. In summary, the department will continue doing all it can to work towards a pre-recess laying of the ARA, recognising that this will be challenging and also depends on factors outside of the department’s direct control. billion on clinical negligence payments without an effective plan to minimise future costs of the scheme.