What is happening to Local Public Audit in England?

Murphy, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8459-4448 and Lakoma, K ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2583-3813, 2025. What is happening to Local Public Audit in England? In: United Kingdom Association for Public Administration, Ulster University, Belfast, 10-12 September 2025.

Presentation 2495772_Murphy.pptx - Presentation Download (2MB)

Abstract

Audit provides an essential part of public assurance and accountability arrangements as it assures financial propriety. In 2010, the incoming Coalition Government announced the abolition of the Audit Commission, which had been responsible inter alia for overseeing and coordinating Local Public Audit (LPA) and appointing external auditors to all local authorities in England and Wales since the commission was established in 1983. In 2014, the Local Audit and Accountability Act radically transformed the form and delivery of LPA and transferred the delivery of LPA to a small number of the international accountancy firms. The implementation of the Act was almost immediately followed by growing concerns about the adequacy of the new arrangements across the local public audit community, including auditors, local authorities, professional and assurance bodies and academics.

In response to these mounting concerns, the government commissioned an independent review (the Redmond Review), which in 2020 found LPA arrangements in England had fragmented deteriorated in terms of assurance and accountability and were no longer ‘fit for purpose’. The review made 22 recommendations for significant changes to the form, nature and content of local audits and to its national leadership, governance and system management arrangements. Between 2019 and July 2024, three successive Conservative governments responded formally and consulted on various changes to the arrangements but took no substantial action, other than attempts to tackle the increasing number of audit delays.

In December 2024 the new government published a public consultation and then responded to the outcome of consultation stating in April 2025. In July 2025 it published a series of proposed changes to Local Audit arrangements, in Part 4 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. This paper will summarise the inadequacies of the current arrangements and critically reviews the current government’s latest proposals in chapter 4 of the Bill which inter alia. seeks to simplify and streamline the current system and create a Local Audit Office to oversee LPA.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Creators:	Murphy, P. and Lakoma, K.
Date:	September 2025
Identifiers:	Number Type 2495772 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	19 Sep 2025 15:07
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2025 15:15
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54380

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads