Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in levels of costs for statutory external audit fees levied on National Park authorities on those authorities; and if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the (a) levels of those fees and (b) breadth of those statutory requirements.

Defra acknowledges that rising costs, including to fees required to fulfil statutory obligations, increase the funding pressures on National Park authorities.

Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited (PSAA) independently sets fees for eligible bodies defined in the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, including National Park authorities. PSAA is responsible for setting the scales of fees for the audit of accounts of authorities who have opted into its services. PSAA consults on and publishes its fee scales - 99% of eligible local bodies opted into its national scheme for the appointing period 2023/24 to 2027/28, including all National Park authorities in England.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a strategy in December to overhaul the local audit system in England. The strategy commits to a series of measures to fix the broken system and consults on several specific proposals.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/local-audit-reform-a-strategy-for-overhauling-the-local-audit-system-in-england