Recommendation 2

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.