Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Accepted in Part
DHSC published 2022-23 accounts six months after deadline, missing pre-summer recess target.
Recommendation
All Departments should aim to lay their accounts and those of their agencies by an administrative deadline of 30 June after the end of the financial year, and no later than the 15 Q 72 16 Qq 50–51 17 Q 49 18 Committee of Public Accounts, Sixty-Second Report of Session 2022–23, Department of Health and Social Care 2021–22 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 997, 5 July 2023, para 5; HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes – Government Response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixty-first to the Sixty-seventh reports from Session 2022–23, CP 941, September 2023, para 5.3 12 Department of Health and Social Care2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts Parliamentary summer recess. Departments have a statutory deadline of 30 November to provide their accounts to the C&AG, and of 31 January to publish their annual report and accounts.19 The Department published its 2022–23 accounts on 25 January 2024, one day earlier than the previous year and six months after the parliamentary recess deadline. The Department has reported that there continues to be significant challenges in bringing the laying of its accounts back to a pre-summer recess timetable.20
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and is implementing a multi-year plan to gradually bring forward the publication of accounts, targeting a return to pre-summer recess laying for the 2026-27 financial year, acknowledging significant external challenges.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2027 2.2 The Department of Health and Social Care (the department) is implementing a multi-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. 2.3 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.