The government’s mooted fix for the local audit backlog is being consulted on by the system leaders, with hopes of publishing more than 700 outstanding audits this year.
The government’s mooted solution to the local audit crisis needs to work, or the Whole of Government Accounts risks being stuck in poor quality for several years, a group of MPs has warned.
A lack of auditor capacity and complex accounting requirements worsened the local audit crisis and meant the Financial Reporting Council could only inspect four financial statements in 2022-23.
The local audit backlog could have “serious financial consequences” and avoiding any delays in clearing it should be a priority for the government, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England...
Signing off the mounting backlog of historical local authority audits could take up to five years as capacity issues restrict progress, an expert has told PF .
More than 900 local authority audit opinions are outstanding and the government must take urgent action to clear the swelling backlog, Public Sector Audit Appointments has said.
Qualified opinions on historical council accounts are likely if the government waives some reporting requirements as it strives for a “system reset”, which it currently plans to do, a senior civil...
Any hope of sustainably clearing the huge backlog in local government audit will fail unless the underlying issue of audit resources is fixed, a committee of MPs has said.
The high-profile failures of councils in Woking and Thurrock demonstrate the importance of a strong and well-understood local audit system, which has arguably been lost, two senior voices in the...
MPs heard that local audit needs a fresh start to clear the backlog and return to timely account sign-off, but were warned that such a move would be risky.
The huge backlog of unaudited local government accounts has ramifications across government, including for entire departments and the NHS, the head of the NAO has warned.
More needs to be done to make auditing an attractive and prestigious profession, and councils stand to benefit hugely if that is achieved, MPs have heard.
Low capacity in council finance teams and the failure to deal with historic accounting issues mean the current September audit deadline is unlikely to be met, local auditors Grant Thornton have...
A further delay to adopting local authority reporting regulations relating to investments is welcome, but the rules need to come into force at some point to avoid undermining transparency, CIPFA has...
Accountants have warned that progress on local audit reforms will stall without further improvements to the audit market and capacity in council finance teams.
A proposed temporary override to financial reporting on councils’ infrastructure has been welcomed by the sector as an opportunity to take a step back and sort out one of the major problems facing...
Local audit firms have been told by the Financial Reporting Council to “urgently” improve the quality and timeliness of their work, after the number of unacceptable audits rose last year.
Failures in the local audit market are leading to “increasingly incomplete and unreliable” data in central government reporting with councils left in the dark over spending decisions, the Public...
