Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
Department plans to accelerate account certification, but timely delivery needs increased local audit capacity.
Conclusion
We asked the Department about its plans to certify its accounts earlier in future. The Department advised us that producing its accounts is a difficult task and the expenditure included represents approximately 8% of the UK economy. It told us that every year it faced a new challenge that was not predicted. The Department told us that it was “confident that we are doing the right things” and that it expected to be able to produce its 2023–24 accounts more quickly. It confirmed that it was working to a November 2024 deadline for the laying UKHSA’s accounts, and it would then lay its own accounts. The Department’s aim is to lay its accounts in Parliament at least a month earlier each year. It emphasised, however, that moving towards pre-summer recess certification would require a sizable change in the capacity of the local audit market.23 Lack of departmental grip over its group bodies
Government Response Summary
The government has accepted the implicit recommendation to accelerate account certification, stating its multi-year plan to publish Annual Report and Accounts earlier, targeting a pre-summer recess laying by Summer 2027, and aiming for 2023-24 certification in November 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
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.