LOCAL AUDIT CONSULTATION by 11th July 2014

The Department for Communities and Local Government is consulting interested parties about the remaining secondary legislation on audit provisions of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, covering regulations regarding Smaller Authorities, Collective Procurement, Accounts and Audit regulations, and the Transparency Code for other Smaller authorities.

Section 5 of the Act enables the Secretary of State to make regulatory provision about  auditing smaller authorities, the consultation questions focus on;

• enabling a person, specified by the Secretary of State, to appoint auditors to smaller authorities. This will facilitate the development of a sector-led body, as proposed by the National Association of Local Councils and the Society of Local Council Clerks; and
• enabling the creation of a less onerous framework for audit, mirroring the current “limited assurance” arrangements, in line with the smaller amounts of public money these authorities control.

The consultation document and proposed regulations include:

• Modification of the Act in relation to smaller authorities (Section 2);
• Specification of Collective Procurement body (Section 3);
• Account and Audit regulations (Section 4);
• Transparency Code for smaller bodies with an annual turnover of less than £25,000 per annum (Section 5).

DCLG and the National Association are particularly interested in your views on the consultation questions contained in Section 3 of the main consultation document (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321749/Local_Audit_Consultation_1.pdf ) Specification of Collective Procurement Body. 

NALC will be responding to this four-week consultation.

In order to help shape NALC's submission they would welcome your responses by noon on Friday 11 July, 2014 to chris.borg@nalc.gov.uk .