Amendments to the Local Audit (Appointing Person) Regulations 2015

Sir Tony Redmond, in his review of the effectiveness of external audit and transparency of financial reporting in local authorities, recommended that the current fee structure for local audit be revised to ensure that adequate resources are deployed to meet the full extent of local audit requirements. To support the implementation of this, the department is providing relevant local government bodies with £15 million in additional funding in 2021/22. This is intended to support affected local bodies to meet the anticipated rise in fees for 2020/21 audits, driven by new requirements on auditors, including the National Audit Office’s Code of Audit Practice 2020, and to enable local authorities to develop standardised statements of service information and costs. The Redmond Review considered the current processes that the above regulations require the appointing person for principal authorities (Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd (PSAA)) to follow, both