Chair of select committee says “sticking plaster” interventions for local government audit backlog not enough

The chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has described the backlog in local government audit as "unacceptably high" and warned that the Government cannot say when or how the situation will improve.

In her Eighth Annual Report, Dame Meg Hillier MP also said that so-called "sticking plaster" interventions from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, like temporary changes to audit guidance, have had "little impact".

She said: "Local authorities need timely audits, so they know the resources which they have available and can make informed budgetary decisions. However, the backlog of audit opinions is unacceptably high."

The report noted that 918 local government audits were outstanding at the end of September 2023.

It also highlighted that just 12% of local audit opinions arrived in time for the already extended 2021–22 accounts' deadline, and it warned that delays "increase the risk that issues will go undetected".

In part, the report blamed a "small and ageing" workforce of local government auditors on the backlog.

It also claimed that the DLUHC's efforts to tackle the shortage by introducing a new qualification that supports experienced audit staff to move from other sectors into the local audit sector "will not provide the required numbers of staff quickly enough".

The report was published a day after the Local Government Association (LGA) said Government proposals to tackle the backlog in local authority audit "will be hard for local authorities to deal with" but must be supported as "the best opportunity for resolving the situation".

The comments came in a response the LGA had given to a CIPFA consultation on simplifying part of the audit process relating to the measurement of operational property plant and equipment and reducing disclosures for pensions reporting.

Adam Carey