Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to South Cambridgeshire District Council not signing off its 2018-19 accounts and not publishing audited accounts for 2019-20 and 2020-21, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local councils are required to resource and prioritise the production of annual accounts within statutory deadlines.

It is vital that local authorities continue to fulfil their responsibilities in the timely completion of audits to maintain transparency and assurance of local authority accounts.

It is for local authorities to do all they can to clear the backlog of delayed audits. In the meantime, the Department continues to prioritise measures to improve timeliness of completed audits, and have taken several steps to improve the situation, including extending the publication deadline for 2019/20 accounts from July to November to ease pressures on councils and audit firms as a result of COVID19. We are also making available an additional £15 million in 2021/22 to help affected bodies meet the growing cost pressures in the audit market and will consider in due course funding arrangements for future years. In October 2021, we laid regulations to allow for greater flexibility around fee-setting and fee variations.

In its capacity as interim system leader for local audit, the Department recently wrote to s151 officers of local authorities to stress the need for local authorities to prioritise clearing outstanding audits and the timely completion of draft accounts going forward in preparation for external audit.