Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will extend the deadline by which local authorities must publish audited accounts to 30 November 2021 following audit delays caused by the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government extended the accounts publication deadline to 30 November for accounting year 2019/20 to deal with delays caused by the Covid-19 outbreak

In line with the recommendations of the Redmond review, regulations extending the deadline from 31 July to 30 September for accounting years 2020/21 and 2021/22 came into force on 31 March

There is a balance to be struck in providing extra time for accounts to be completed and enabling the accounts to be published in a timely manner.

The Government will review these arrangement after 2 years.